The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Norman Wolves 'AAA' Pee Wee Hockey Club travelled to Virden, Manitoba, on the weekend of March 26 to 28, 2004, for the First Annual Oil King Cup. The Norman team was made up of Pee Wee players from Flin Flon, Thompson, The Pas and Snow Lake, and was able to manage one practice in The Pas on March 26 before travelling to Virden for the tournament. The Norman Wolves played their opening games on Saturday morning against the South East Selects. The Wolves came out very strong and defeated the Selects 9-0. Brett Haukaas of The Pas got the shutout for the Wolves. Aaron Bauman paced the Wolves with two goals and two assists. Cole Williams of The Pas had two goals and one assist, and Rory McKie of Thompson had two goals. Braydon Burkhart of The Pas had a goal and an assist while Corey Dupre of Flin Flon picked up a goal. Other players collecting points were Calvin Cairns of Flin Flon and Michael Lafreniere of Thompson with two assists each, Jesse Ramstead of The Pas, John Crockett of The Pas, Matthew Backhouse of Thompson, and Shaquille Merasity of Thompson each added assists. The Norman Wolves then went on to play the Parkissimo East 'AAA' Hockey Team made up of players Russell, Roblin and Neepawa areas. The Wolves were a little flat for their second effort of the day and fell in a close match 3-2. Summaries are not available for this game. In their third game of the day, the Norman Wolves, because of the way the points were calculated during the round robin portion of the tournament, once again had to meet Parkissimo East in the 'A' side semi-final. While the Wolves put on a much better effort, they again fell to the Parkissimo team 4-2. Rory McKie of Thompson paced the Wolves with two unassisted goals. The Wolves out skated Parkissimo and could easily have won the game, having hit the goal post at least five times during the course of the play. The loss dropped the Wolves to the 'B' side semi final, and they came up against the home area, Westman team on Sunday morning. The game was a fast skating affair, and Westman opened the scoring at 7:28 of the first period. The Wolves replied on a goal by Aaron Bauman at 12:28 of the first period assisted by Matthew Backhouse of Thompson and Braydon Burkhart of The Pas. The Wolves went ahead 2-1 at 13:04 of the second period on a goal by Johnny Crockett of The Pas assisted by Aaron Bauman and Ben Salamandyk of Thompson. Just over a minute later, Aaron Bauman scored an unassisted goal to put the Wolves up 3-1. Rory McKie of Thompson rounded out the second period scoring for the Wolves with an unassisted effort with 8:26 remaining. In the third period the Wolves would score again with a goal at 16:25 from Jesse Ramstead of The Pas, assisted by Corey Dupre of Flin Flon and Braydon Burkhart of The Pas. The Westman team would score one more goal late in period but simply did not have enough legs to compete with the Norman team. The win put the Norman team into the final with, guess who, the Parkissimo East team who they would meet at 3 p.m. Sunday for the third time in the tournament. In the championship game, both the Norman Wolves and the Parkissimo East Selects came out determined to win. The game was end to end with both goalies making some exceptional saves and the first period going scoreless. Parkissimo opened the scoring on a power play goal at 10:02 of the second period. That was the only scoring for the first 40 minutes of play. In the third period, Aaron Bauman of Flin Flon got the Wolves on the scoreboard with a pretty, unassisted effort at 15:22. Bauman picked up a loose puck in the Parkissimo corner, and with several opposition players draped over him powered his way to the front of the net and fired a backhand high over the Parkissimo goaltender's glove. Just over six minutes later the Norman Wolves struck again when Aaron Bauman won the face off in the Parkissimo end and got it back to Matthew Backhouse on the point. Backhouse ripped a shot on net and a goalmouth scramble ensued. Aaron Bauman managed to flip the puck over to Cole Williams who was standing in the crease and fired it home past a sprawled Parkissimo goaltender. The Wolves tried to hang onto their slim lead for the rest of the period, however, with several players out due to injuries and three or four "walking wounded" on the bench, the Wolves could not prevent Parkissimo from tying the game with only 3:20 left in the third period. Despite some good chances at both ends of the ice, the teams went into overtime tied at two apiece. The first overtime period was a five-minute period of five on five hockey. The play was end to end with both teams having some good scoring chances. With 30 seconds left in the period, the Wolves were on a rush to the Parkissimo end. Matthew Backhouse from Thompson took the puck as far as the top of the Parkissimo circle but lost it after being checked by two Parkissimo players. The loose puck was picked up by Aaron Bauman of Flin Flon who skated it to the high slot area and let go a blast along the ice towards the Parkissimo net. The Parkissimo goalie went down and appeared to have trapped the puck under his pads; however, the puck trickled out and spun the goal post and into the net giving the Norman Wolves the championship and the first ever Oil King Cup. The Norman Wolves would like to thank their coaches and staff for putting together the team on short notice and ensuring that the boys had a great time in Virden. Tim Williams of The Pas was the coach assisted by Kevin Ryan of Thompson and Glen Young of Snow Lake. Greg Bauman was the team manager. The team also wishes to thank the tournament organizers for a very well run tournament and as well the on ice officials who discharged their duties very competently.11/5/04
