Demons fall to Blizzard in Creators Cup final

BARRIE – Despite a gallant comeback attempt by the Ohsweken Demons that sent the game into OT, the Barrie Blizzard scored shorthanded to win the 2015 CLax Creators Cup, 13-12.

After Barrie’s Michael Teeter opened the scoring less than two minutes into the first quarter, Demons’ scoring ace Chris Attwood evened the score with an unassisted effort.

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Roger Vyse and Wayne VanEvery turned that into a 3-1 Demons lead, but Barrie would not be shaken, and rallied with three straight goals, all scored by Caleb Wiles. Teeter netted his second of the game to give the Blizzard a 5-3 lead.

Tom Montour cut the Blizzard lead to 5-4 but Shane Scott restored the two-goal edge by the end of the quarter.

Barrie widened the margin with early second quarter goals scored by Mike Mawdsley and Dustin Caravello.

That would be all for starter Jake Henhawk, who was replaced by Chase Martin, who went the rest of the way in the Ohsweken net and was sensational in keeping his team in the game.

Mo Bissel reduced the Barrie lead to 8-5, assisted by Wayne VanEvery and Chase Martin.

Shane Scott made it 9-5 before Roger Vyse scored a pair of late period goals to close out the first half with Barrie leading 9-7.

Chris Attwood got a little too aggressive at 6:40 of the second period and was tossed from the game, leaving his team in a jam with one of their hottest sticks watching from the stands.

In the semi-final game against Durham, Attwood scored five goals and assisted on three to power the Demons offense.

“We got ourselves in a hole,” said coach Mouse Henry. “We knew the game would be played with a lot of emotion. They had a little more positive emotion, while our emotion was trying to get back at a guy rather than helping their teammates. We focused on the referees and it got out of control. We talked about the emotional part of the game. He got caught up with the emotion and stuff happens. We feel bad, and he feels bad, but it’s part of the game and he got busted for it and we dug a bit of a hole there.”

Martin was especially good throughout most of the third quarter, but late in frame the Blizzard added two quick ones before Montour chipped one in from Rodd Squire to make it 11-8. The teams traded goals to move the score to 12-9 with Torrey Vanevery doing the honours for Ohsweken and Caravello for Barrie.

The Demons were down by three when Wayne VanEvery took the bull by the horns and conducted a personal comeback rally with three straight Demons goals to send the game into OT.

There were several very close chances for the Demons to win it, including what they thought was the game winner when VanEvery snagged a clearing pass from the Barrie goaltender’s stick and bounced one in behind him in one motion. What would have been the Creators Cup winning goal was called back for a very close crease violation.

Then with 4:48 remaining in the first OT period, and with a man in the box, the Blizzard caught another break as Jason Crawford found a loose ball and a clear lane to the Demons net to score and win the franchise’s first Creator’s Cup.

“We had a good game,” said Martin following the disappointing loss. “We started out with what we wanted but started jogging in the second half and came one shot short of winning.”

He too saw the ejection of Attwood as pivotal.

“Attwood is a game changer and it was a tough loss to see him get thrown out of the game that early,” said Martin. “He would have helped out a lot in the long run, I think.”

Henry was professional in dealing with the loss after the game and thanked them all, one-on-one, for battling back so hard.

Henry thanked the Demons fans for following them this season and is already looking forward to next year.

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