SAC Saints capture bronze medal at 39^th MacPherson Hockey Tournament

February 2, 2023 · 0 Comments

The St. Andrew’s College Saints defeated Victory Honda 4-2 to capture the bronze medal at the 39^th Annual MacPherson Hockey Tournament on Sunday morning at La Brier Family Arena.

SAC finished the tournament with a 3-2 record, including a tough semi-final defeat on Saturday night to the Northwood Prep School Huskies of Lake Placid, NY.

Jack Pridham scored both goals for the Saints in the 3-2 loss to the Huskies.

Northwood competes against the Saints in the six-team international Prep Hockey Conference established in 2021.

Saints’ Head Coach David Manning was pleased with his team’s determination in the bronze medal game.

“We were consistent in our effort. We had to overcome the disappointment of the semi-final loss and succeeded.”

In his post-game assessment, Coach Manning focused on two positives: the Saints’ power play which “sealed the deal” versus Victory Honda, as well as the veteran presence of Captain Jonathan Castagna who “led the way, as he has all season.”

Castagna and teammate Francesco Dell’Elce were selected to the MacPherson Tournament All-Star team.

In the Consolation Final on Saturday morning, Lucas Veilleux opened the scoring for the Saints at 13:44 of the first period, assisted by Jack Pridham and Dean Letourneau. Victory Honda took a 2-1 lead in the second period on goals by Joseph Meredith and Trevor Stenglein. SAC struck back with three unanswered goals – Anselmo Rego assisted by Veilleux and Pridham at 10:35 of the second period; Rory Gilmour assisted by Connor Arseneault and Tyler Chiovetti at 3:18 of the third period; and Castagna assisted by Veilleux and Dell’Elce at 2:47 of the third period – to seal the victory on home ice.

In the Championship Final on Saturday afternoon, GOJHL 18U captured the Gold Medal with a 2-0 win over Northwood Prep.

Nathan Phillips put GOJHL on the board with what turned out to be the winning goal at 2:32 of the first period. The championship game featured tight checking and fluid hockey.

Netminder Nikolas Trakakis of Northwood Prep and GOJHL goaltender David Egorov thwarted numerous point-blank scoring opportunities over 24 minutes of scoreless hockey, but GOJHL extended their lead to 2-0 at 9:34 of the third period on a goal by Connor Haynes.

Egorov preserved his shutout in the dying minutes of the championship game and was named the MacPherson Tournament’s Most Valuable Player. GOJHL 18U teammates Sam O’Reilly, Brennan Faulkner, and Callum Cheynowski were named to the Tournament All-Star team, along with Northwood Prep’s Billy Batten and Daniel Buchhbinder. Huskies defenseman Jack Kent was named the Tournament’s Most Sportsmanlike Player.

The Saints’ next PHC game is in Indiana versus Culver Academies on February 4 and 5.

By Jim Stewart