Gabriele’s Southpoint Capitals Peewee Majors Bring Home Silver at the Whitby Thanksgiving Tournament

The Gabriele's Southpoint Capitals Peewee Major team finished with silver in a tough draw at the Whitby Thanksgiving Tournament. In game one of the tournament, the Capitals were fresh off the road battling Toronto traffic to make it to the Oshawa Arena in time for the game.

Facing a favourite in the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario Peewee Division, the London Bandits, the Capitals fell victim to a tough 6-2 loss. With the score 3-0 in the second period, Darrin DiMenna and Luc Ribble were able to net a pair of unassisted markers to come within one. Late in the second the Bandits restored a 2 goal lead. Penalty trouble in the third led to two power play goals against Southpoint making the final score 6-2. Without putting too much stock in the score, Tyler Dillen had a promising performance in net for the Capitals.

In game 2 on Saturday afternoon, the Caps were determined to put yesterday's game behind them. A highly ranked Barrie Colts team, that had beaten Southpoint's previous opponent 4-2, wanted to show off their stuff to the Capital's fans. Gabriele's Capitals would have none of that though, as they finished off the first period with a 4-1 lead and wouldn't look back from there. The game finished off 8-1. Scoring for the Caps were Brennan Hancock (3), Rory DiNiro, Brett Enns, Dawson Iles, Evan Loveless and Jack Hannigan. Assists went to DiNiro (2), Loveless, Hancock, Jessica Jeffery, Iles, Hannigan, Bret Predhomme, Reggie Evans and Ryan Wall. Cristian Santos put in a solid performance in net for Southpoint.

Game 3 Sunday morning at the Don Beer arena in Pickering featured the Webster Cyclones (New York) trying to get their first win of the tourney against the Capitals. With another solid performance in net Tyler Dillen managed to get his first "donut" of the year as the Caps beat the Cyclones 5-0. Scoring for Southpoint was DiNiro (3), Jeffery and DiMenna. Assists went to DiNiro (2), Wall, Hancock, Predhomme and Camden Driedger.

The final game in the round robin on Sunday night required the Capitals to win versus the Richmond Hill Stars if they wanted to control their own destiny and move on to the semi final game Monday morning. A long layoff between games had the Capitals come out pretty flat against the Star as they got down 1-0 early in the second stanza. The Capitals quickly replied with an end to end solo effort by Ribble to knot the game. Late in the second Southpoint was able to make it 2-1 with a goal by Loveless from Hancock and Evans; however the Stars capitalized on a late power play to make it 2-2 with 7 seconds to go between periods. Midway through the third period the Caps Hancock scored the game winner. Unfortunately for the Caps Hancock fell victim to a Checking From Behind call late in the third period which saw him lost for the remainder of the tournament. Thankfully, the Richmond Hill player was able to get up after a minute down on the ice. Santos played solid in net for the Gabriele's Capitals.  To read more go to www.leamingtonpostandshopper.com.