Ironmen earn shutout win in special Family Day matinee contest
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
After suffering two losses the previous weekend, the Wingham Ironmen roared back over the Family Day weekend with two shutout wins.
The Ironmen were home for both games over the weekend, which yielded a 5-0 win over the Kincardine Bulldogs on Friday night and a 2-0 win over the Mitchell Hawks in a special Family Day matinee contest.
On Family Day, over 425 people packed the Wingham stands to take in the game and see the hometown Ironmen beat the Mitchell Hawks by a score of 2-0.
There was no scoring in the first period, but Wingham scored all the goals the team would need in the second period within 31 seconds of one another.
Kyle Stanbury scored his 22nd goal of the season, unassisted, just 56 seconds into the second period, followed by Noah Bloemberg’s third goal of the season at 1:27 of the period, assisted by Turner Mckenzie.
There were no goals in the third period.
Garrett Golley earned the shutout win for the Ironmen, stopping all 22 shots he faced, compared to Mitchell’s Joshua Jacklin, who was able to stop 33 of the 35 shots he faced.
All three stars of the game were Ironmen. Goal-scorer Noah Bloemberg was the first star, while Kyle Stanbury, who scored the team’s other goal, was the second star. Turner Mckenzie, with one assist, was the third star.
The game was a relatively clean affair, with just eight penalty minutes doled out evenly amongst the two teams.
Wingham’s Zach Wall was called for interference at 7:12 of the first period and Mitchell’s Callan Ferguson was called for head contact at 14:34 of the first period.
There were no penalties called in the second period, but Wingham’s Matt Tolton was called for hooking at 2:13 of the third period and Mitchell’s Nolan Gagnier was called for goaltender interference at 3:19 of the third period.
On Friday night in Wingham it was a different story, with just under an hour of penalties assessed to both the Wingham Ironmen and the Kincardine Bulldogs in a 5-0 Ironmen win.
Wingham’s Matt Tolton opened the scoring at 5:37 of the first period with his 16th goal of the season, assisted by Patrick Galloway.
The onslaught continued with Austin Becker’s ninth goal of the season, scored at 11:16 of the second period, assisted by Kyle Stanbury and Tayt Bramhill, and a power play goal scored by Noah Bloemberg, his second of the season, assisted by Austin Becker.
The Ironmen then closed out the game with a pair of power play goals in the third period. Dawson Fahrer scored his third of the season at 1:27 of the period, assisted by Kyle Stanbury and Noah Bloemberg and then Tyson Fischer scored his first goal of the season at 15:29 of the period, assisted by Tayt Bramhill and Noah Wettlaufer.
In the Wingham net, Garrett Golley stopped all 26 shots that came his way, while Christian DeJong, in the Kincardine net, stopped 33 of the 38 shots he faced.
Wingham’s Austin Becker, with one goal and one assist, was the first star of the game, followed by fellow Ironmen Tyson Fischer with one goal and third star Garrett Golley, who earned the shutout for the Ironmen, making 26 saves along the way.
There was just one penalty in the first period, Kincardine’s Joseph Pringle for interference, but the floodgates opened up in the second.
Wingham’s Dawson Fahrer was called for hooking just 49 seconds into the second period, followed by two roughing calls - Wingham’s Dawson Fahrer and Kincardine’s Joseph Pringle - and a charging penalty also called against Fahrer, all at the 3:55-minute mark of the period.
At the 6:11 mark of the period, Kincardine’s Jake Ertel was called for both cross checking and unsportsmanlike conduct, followed by a charging call on Kincardine’s Jordan Beisel at 8:52 of the period and a roughing call against Kincardine’s Wilson Shipp at 16:31.
Carter Servais of the Bulldogs was then assessed a trio of penalties and ejected from the game. He received a five-minute major fighting penalty, as well as fighting instigator and fighting aggressor penalties at 16:50 of the second period, all of which were served by Hayden Robinson.
Also at 16:50 of the period, Nate Bloemberg of the Ironmen was called for unsportsmanlike conduct and handed a 10-minute major penalty and was also ejected from the game.
In the third period, Kincardine’s Austin Waite was called for cross checking at 1:05 of the third period. Wingham’s Tayt Bramhill was called for tripping at 3:25 of the period, followed by a holding call on Austin Becker at 6:33.
Kincardine’s Jake Ertel was then called for slashing at 8:10 of the period and then ejected from the game for abuse of officials.
Wingham’s Matt Tolton was called for tripping at the 11-minute mark of the third period, followed by a pair of head contact penalties called on Kincardine’s Wilson Shipp at 13:58 of the period.
Kincardine’s Caeleb Bowler was called for charging at 14:30 of the period, followed by a slashing penalty called on Ryan Litt of the Bulldogs.
Wingham’s Zach Wall was called for boarding at 17:52 of the period, followed by an interference call on Kincardine’s Wilson Shipp at 18:48 of the period and a charging call on Kincardine’s Caeleb Bowler and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called against Wingham’s Turner Mckenzie, both at 19:32 of the period.
The Ironmen now play their final three regular season games on the road. They’re in Walkerton for a game with the Capitals on Feb. 24, Goderich on Feb. 25 for a game with the Flyers and then in Goderich again on March 4 to play the Flyers again.
The Mount Forest Patriots remain in first place in the North Pollock Division of the Provincial Junior Hockey League with 59 points and a record of 29-9-0-1. The Hanover Barons are in second place with a record of 25-9-2-2 and 54 points and the Mitchell Hawks are in third place with 50 points and a record of 23-11-2-2.
The Ironmen are in fourth place with 49 points and a record of 23-13-2-1, followed by the Kincardine Bulldogs with 39 points and a record of 17-16-4-1, the sixth-place Walkerton Capitals with 14 points and a record of 6-29-1-1 and the last-place Goderich Flyers with 13 points and a record of 6-30-1-0.