While their OMHA playoffs ended abruptly, it was a very sweet send off to the 2022-23 hockey season for the U13 Terra Vista Prince Edward County Kings.

The Kings returned from the 2023 Warrior Tournament in St. Catharines with a championship banner and did so in dramatic fashion, going to a shoot out in the final and semi final games to ensure it’s a tourney triumph that will be remembered for a long time.

 The AA-A-BB tourney in the Niagara peninsula typically draws upwards of 60 teams from all over Ontario and the PECMHA has sent clubs to compete in the March Break event most years. 

Kings bench boss Chad Camp said he and the coaching staff were extremely proud of the team’s efforts over the weekend.

“We faced a lot of adversity especially early in the season when we couldn’t find a way to win the close games,” Camp told the Gazette. “This weekend, the players really took upon themselves to do all the little extras at the right time and and it was manifested in a championship effort I don’t think they will ever forget.”

The U13 Kings claimed their title in dramatic fashion Sunday afternoon, getting a measure of revenge on the Halton Hills Thunder, the only team to best the Kings in the round robin portion of the tournament.

The Kings seemed to be cruising with a 2-0 lead midway through the contest only to see the Thunder come rumbling back to tie the game late.

Will Prinzen scored on a penalty shot to push his club ahead and Easton Vanhecke would add a second goal to stake the locals to a 2-0 lead.

Tied at 2-2, the 3-on-3 five minute overtime period frazzled the nerves of parents and coaches alike but solved nothing. 

In the shootout, Kings captain Caleb Krentz saved his best move of the tournament for its biggest moment and managed to put Prince Edward County in a clinching position.

At the Kings end, it ended up being Landon Latchford standing tall and staring down a Halton Hills attempt to secure a victory for the locals.

“Riley Monk and (Latchford) both came up with big saves and at the right time,” Camp said. “You don’t go as far as we did and not get great goaltending from both guys.”

By the time the finals rolled around, the Kings were well versed in high drama, clinching their place in the last game of the day with a semis shootout win over opposing Petrolia.

Down 1-0 into the waning moments of the third period against the Oilers, Kings forward Weston Byford got loose and managed to tie the game with just 61 seconds left on the clock to square the affair at 1-1. Parker Osborne played set up man on the Kings equalizer.

The Kings would get a power play in overtime setting up a lengthy 4-on-3 advantage but only the heroics of Oilers net minder Ty Kerr kept the contest deadlocked.

In the shootout, Osborne beat Kerr in the fourth round and then Latchford denied Dylan Terpstra who had notched the Oil’s goal in the second stanza.

The Kings got off on the right foot in their first game on Friday, downing the Sudbury Timberwolves 5-2.

After neither team could find the back of the net through most of the opening period, the Kings gave the opposition from the Big Nickel a jolt as Lincoln Doxsee and Parker Osborne scored 24 seconds apart in the final minute of the frame to give the locals a 2-0 lead.

Sudbury would carve into that lead in the second but Byford’s first of the tourney early in the third pushed the Kings ahead to stay.

Easton Vanhecke found the range at the 8:35 mark to make it 4-1 Kings and added a goal to go along with a helper on Byford’s tally.

The Wolves would manage to beat with just over a minute to go in the final stanza but the Kings marched back up the ice and it was Osborne setting up Hudson Scanlon who salted the 5-2 victory away for the Kings. Of note, the Timberwolves lineup featured Mason Hofford, son of Prince Edward County natives Brad and Patricia (Jamieson) Hofford who now live and work in the Sudbury area.

Riley Monk picked up the win in the Kings cage.

The Kings ran into their only bit of trouble in the tournament Friday evening when they were blanked 2-0 by Halton Hills. Kings starter Latchford was outstanding in goal for the locals who couldn’t solve Thunder net minder Jaxon Lindsay.

On Saturday, the Kings rebounded with a pair of clutch, must-win games to punch their ticket to Sunday’s action.

Down 1-0 after a Garden City Falcons power play tally, Vanhecke would set up Blake Shephard-Benway at the 3:07 mark of the first to make it 1-1.

The tie was finally broken in the third when Prinzen and Shephard-Benway set up Jack Thompson for the game winner.

Bane Baverstock-Wood was set up by Scanlon and Wyatt Raycroft at 10:35 to make it 3-1 and then, just over a minute later, Baverstock-Wood would pick up another point in the third after Vanhecke scored his second of the weekend.

Monk picked up the win.

On Saturday evening, the Kings needed to a win over the Strathroy Jr. Rockets to move onto Sunday and a pair of nifty individual efforts helped pave the way for Prince Edward County.

Scanlon and Byford scored exactly one minute apart midway through the first to give the Kings a 2-0 cushion.

Strathroy would get to within a goal partway through the third but that was all as Osborne picked up an empty netter inside the last minute of the game to make it a 3-1.

While the U13 club got the glory, the U11 Otter Energy and the U15 Heidelberg Materials Kings also made the semi-finals, making the 2023 Warrior Tournament one of the most successful for PECMHA.

“That was a nice feeling Saturday when all three teams were able to take a group picture and we had all done our best to make the final day of the tournament,” Camp added.