The Ingersoll Bantam Rep team sponsored by Louie's Pizza and Pasta entered the International Silver Stick Hockey Tournament on December 30th. The Express started off with their first game against the Petrolia Oilers.
Both teams came out hard but the first period would be Ingersoll's with the only goal put on the board coming from Express winger Alex Foster after he tipped in a point shot from Robbie Jackson assisted by Justin Holmes. The second period went back and forth until Eric Savoie scored on the power play assisted by Tyler Arts with 3:19 left. At 1:35 the Express struck again on the power play when Justin Holmes assisted Foster for his second goal of the game. Early in the third at 14:43 the Oilers would get one with a tip in on the power play to make it 3-1 Express. Goalie Noah Robinson would thwart all other shots from there on. At 11:15 Ingersoll scored again with the puck being moved from Hammond to Arts to Savoie who scored his second of the game. The next point came from Tanner Geddies who jammed the puck in assisted by Hammond and Maxx Shelton to make it 5-1. With 43 seconds left Nathan Gould passed to Jacob Branderhorst who dropped a back pass to Ben Jentz scoring making it 6-1. The final goal had Foster scoring after a nice deke completing his hat trick assisted by Geddies and Holmes. 7-1 Express!
On January 2nd the Bantam Rep team was up bright and early for the second game against the Wallaceburg Lakers. The stars of the game were the Ingersoll defense consisting of Gray, Berzins, Gould, Van Egdom and Jackson who assisted goalie Jayden Purdy with another shut out. In the first period Geddies scored the first goal assisted by Foster and Gould at 7:33, then Savoie got one at 6:18 assisted by Arts.That would be the only two points put up in the first. Two more goals came from the Express in the second. At 8:07 Hammond scored assisted by Jentz and Arts then at 2:43 Geddies got his second assisted by Foster and Gray. No goals were scored in the third ending the game 4-0 leaving Ingersoll in first place waiting to play in the semi-final Sunday.
On January 4th the Express went back to battle Watford for the 2nd time. Ingersoll faced a different Watford
team who also knew it was do or die. The first period was scoreless with all thanks going to goalie Noah Robinson whostood on his head keeping the Express in the game. Halfway through the second period Ingersoll took
control cycling the puck when Tanner Gray passed to Clayton Hammond who fed Tyler Arts scoring to move 1-0. ahead Wallaceburg scored late in the 3rd on a power play to send the game into 3 on 3 overtime. After 13:20
minutes of back and forth action Tyler Arts passed to Ben Jentz who went top shelf winning the game and
sending the Express to the final.
The Express were up against the strong Ilderton Jets later that day in the final. Ingersoll came out a different
team strong and battle ready. There was no points put on the board in the first period with ingersoll's defense and goalie working like a well oiled machine. At 7:58 the Jets struck first making it 1-0, but one minute later Eric Savoie scored a short handed goal with a five hole wrist shot assisted by Tyler Arts. With the game tied both teams drove on into the third period. At 5:15 Jacob Branderhorst put the Express ahead with wrist shot from the hash marks assisted by Ben Jentz and Justin Holmes. The Express held the score to 2-1 for the rest of the game taking the big green banner home with the word "Champions" on it! Congratulations to the team and coaching staff. Next stop, the International. Go Express!