Team Denise continued their Family Day dominance, knocking off Team Bill to win their fourth straight IceDogs Skill Competition 26-25 in front of approximately 1750 fans at the Gatorade Garden City Complex.
The results of the events were as follows:
Puck Control Relay
Team Bill got the first point of the day as his Puck Control Relay team of Alex Friesen, Freddie Hamilton, Myles Doan, Dougie Hamilton and Jesse Graham defeated Team Denise's team of Mitch Bennett, Trevor Petersen, Brett Ritchie, Luke Mercer and Milan Doudera. Team Bill's final time of 1:32.2 bested Team Denise's time of 1:39.16 making it 2-0 Team Bill.
Fastest Skater
Team Bill quickly extended the lead, picking up wins in three of four heats and then having the fastest overall skater in Carter Verhaeghe to make it 7-1 after the fastest skater competition.
Team Denise
Shayne Rover 12.37 sec
Luke Mercer 12.10 sec
Andrew Agozzino 12.90 sec
Brett Ritchie 12.30 sec
Team Bill
Carter Verhaeghe 12.00 sec
Jesse Graham 12.62 sec
Myles Doan 12.07 sec
Alex Friesen 12.07 sec
Fastest Goalie
Team Bill's lead would be stretched to 8-1 when Mark Visentin picked up the fastest goalie win, despite a despute from Team Denise, whose goaltender Christopher Festarini was interfered with by Team Bill's Brock Beukeboom during the race.
Breakaway Challenge
Next, the players brought out a little originality and they certainly didn't disappoint. The judging panel of three young IceDogs fans saw fit to award four perfect 30s in competition. Some of the highlights included:
- The first 30 going to Team Denise's Shayne Rover, who would break his stick and return with one twice his size to stick handle by Visentin for the goal.
- Trevor Petersen receiving a 30 for picking the puck up in tight and swatting one in
- Brock Beukeboom hopping into a shopping cart being pushed by a pair of teammates who did a spin-o-rama with the cart as Beukeboom sent one just wide and then proceeded to go over in the cart.
- Mark Visentin facing Ryan Strome's attempts with his mask on backwards, making it impossible for him to see.
- David Pacan picking up a 15 as he and three teammates fell flat on their face as they attempted to carry him in on goal while he stick handled.
With both the most players receiving 30s and the highest team total, to close the gap to 8-4
Team Denise
Shayne Rover 30
Trevor Petersen 30
Mitchell Theoret 27
Ryan Strome 30
Team Bill
Carter Verhaeghe 20
Brock Beukeboom 29
Steven Shipley 30
David Pacan 15
Shooting Accuracy
Team Bill would get things back on track, picking up three more points, for Steven Shipley being the most accurate shooter, going 4 for 4, while they also picked up the best team scoring, making it 11-4.
Team Denise
Milan Doudera 2/8
Mitchell Theoret 3/8
Jamie Oleksiak 3/8
Ryan Strome 3/8
Mitch Bennett 1/8
Total 12/40
Team Bill
Joel Wigle 1/8
Dougie Hamilton 2/8
Steven Shipley 4/4
Tom Kuhnhackl 2/8
Freddie Hamilton 4/6
Total 13/34
Shooting Accuracy (Goalies)
Both teams would pick up a point in the goalie accuracy as both Festarini and Visentin went 2 for 8, making it 12-5 after the shooting accuracy.
Hardest Shot
Team Bill would continue their individual dominance as Brock Beukeboom would take home a point, registering the competition's hardest shot at 99 mph on the last shot of the event. However, Team Denise would use the event to close the score as they picked up two points for highest average making it 12-6 headed into the elimination shootout.
Team Denise
Shayne Rover 92 mph
Mitchell Theoret 89 mph
Brett Ritchie 92 mph
Jamie Oleksiak 97 mph
Average 92.5 mph
Team Bill
Joel Wigle 88 mph
David Pacan 88 mph
Tom Kuhnhackl 93 mph
Brock Beukeboom 99 mph
Average 92.0 mph
Elimination Shootout
The final individual event before the 3-on-3 game was the elimination shootout where all skaters participated in a shootout, where if you scored you survived and if you missed you were eliminated. Team Denise would only have two survive the first round as Luke Mercer and Strome would be the only to score, while Doan, Kuhnhackl, Pacan and Beukeboom would all score for Team Bill. However, Mercer would prove to be the only one to score from their, scoring twice more before being stopped and with the two bonus points for being the last one standing, Team Denise would cut the Team Bill lead to 17-12 heading into the 3-on-3 game.
3-on-3 Game
After eight initial events, it would ultimately come down to the always enjoyable 3-on-3 game. Consisting of two 15 minute run time periods with one minute shifts, there was still a chance for Team Denise, but with a five goal lead, it certainly looked like this could be Team Bill's year. Team Bill would have to send over rookie star Carter Verhaeghe to Team Denise to balance out 3-on-3 participants and that would prove to be trouble. Verhaeghe, Theoret and Ritchie would all score twice and Jamie Oleksiak would add two, including the game winner, as Team Denise outscored Team Bill 14-8 in 3-on-3 to take home a 26-25 event final. Team Bill held on to the lead the entire game, giving it up for the first time all day with only 75 seconds remaining, at 26-25, but Festarini shut it down from there sending Team Denise home victorious once again.
While Team Denise took home the bragging rights once again, the entire IceDogs organization would like to thank the true stars of the day, the fans. The IceDogs appreciate all the fans support and thank all fans who came out to join us for a great day of Family Day fun. We hope to see you back at the rink for a game soon and look forward to seeing everyone back next year as Team Bill tries again to snap Team Denise's four year strea











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