Joey Lies can add a national gold medal to his family’s trophy chest.
The Flin Flon-born and raised forward earned a gold medal a, held July 28-31 in Winnipeg at the BellMTS Iceplex and Canada Life Centre. Lies joined up with the Manitoba Selects, a club made up mostly of major junior and college hockey prospects from Winnipeg. Lies, a 16-year-old who was picked by the Swift Current Broncos in the seventh round of the 2020 WHL draft, played in Winnipeg this year with Rink Hockey Academy, a team in the Canadian Sport Schools Hockey League (CSSHL).
The Selects started nationals with an 8-1 victory over the New Tecumseth Xtreme from Ontario July 28, then added a 5-1 win over the Team BC Thunder the next day. On July 30, the team got to take to the big rink - the Canada Life Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets - and earned their third win in as many days, beating the Newfoundland Selects 6-3.
With a perfect record through the preliminary round, the Selects would play a semifinal game later July 30, facing Pacific Coast, a team of elite prospects mainly from B.C. The Manitoba team gutted out a 4-3 win in a shootout, sending them to the tournament final.
In that final, Lies and the Selects would face Toronto’s Withrow Park Knights, who had gotten to the final by beating New Tecumseth 9-1 in their semifinal. That would mean another game in the big rink, going back to Canada Life Centre.
It would be a close matchup, with Manitoba scoring early in the first but the Knights clawing back to tie the game 2-2 after one period. A second-period goal would put the Knights ahead 3-2 going into the third, but Manitoba would claw back, tying the game at 3-3 early in the third.
With 1:25 left on the clock and a Knights player in the box, Manitoba’s Jayden Perron scored the go-ahead goal to make it 4-3, which would stand as both the game- and tournament-winner.
Lies wrapped up the tournament with no points in five games and a gold medal around his neck. The forward is slated to join training camp with the Broncos this year - Lies has also committed to play with the Bombers if he does not make the Broncos out of camp.
