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Bulls Take Home Gretzky Title

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2008

Coach Bob Pickford's players knew how much going back to his hometown of Brantford, Ontario, meant to him. The players on his Brandon Jr. Bulls, even though they were only 9 and 10 years old, had told him they wanted to win the Atom A title at last month's Wayne Gretzky International Tournament for him.

With a 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets, they did just that.

"More than one player told me that they wanted to win it for me as well as themselves," Pickford said. "That was pretty cool."

Goaltender Josh Fredenberger earned game MVP honors, while Clint Walden and Cole Gallant scored for the Bulls. Pickford said Fredenberger was outstanding in net, especially during a 5-on-3 in the third period as the Bulls were clinging to their lead.

"The game was won with our goaltending," Pickford said. "It was just unbelievable. ... He made a couple of saves that were just out of this world, just fantastic."

Fredenberger was helped by his defensemen, with Connor Smith drawing praise from Pickford.

"He just had an unbelievable tournament," Pickford said. "He played just outstanding. The other defensemen also played well, but Connor had a breakout tournament. He was just all over the ice."
Pickford grew up in Brantford and faced the current incarnation of the team he played on as a kid in the semifinals. The Bulls beat the Brantford 99er's 7-4, using four unanswered goals when the score was tied 2-2 to take control.

Brandon had beaten Brantford 7-1 in the pool stage of the tournament, and Pickford was surprised at the fight the 99er's showed in the teams' second matchup.

"They certainly gave us a little more fight in the second game," he said. "We played them in the second game of the tournament, and handled them pretty easily. They had a lot of enthusiasm, and were pretty fired up to be playing in the semifinals against us."

While it was the first time the team had ventured above the Canadian border, traveling to hockey's hotbeds is something the Bulls have done frequently in the past, playing tournaments in Detroit, Chicago and Niagara Falls.

"Each year we try to travel to one out-of-state event," Pickford said. "They tend to come up against the stereotype, 'Well you're from Florida, you can't be very good.' When they get to go up there and see that everyone puts their skates on the same way, and it's a matter of going up and executing your process, it gives them a huge amount of confidence to bring back."

Confidence Pickford hopes the team can use at the state tournament in Coral Springs at the end of February.

RUGBY: The Tampa Barbarians won their first game in club history with a 21-5 victory against Winter Park on Saturday.

After the Barbarians had lost to the Tampa Pelicans 41-0 in their opening game, Ben Nakamura, J.J. Kalka and Mike Alberts all scored tries and Chris Shirer converted all three as the Barbarians controlled the field position and tempo of the game.

"It was exciting," Coach Martin van Trees said. "They played a much, much better game, tackled better, played a much better game all things considered. A nice result."

The Pelicans took their second win in as many games, winning 76-7 on the road against Jacksonville Bolles, and will face Winter Park this weekend.

CHICAGO SHOWCASE: Ten local hockey players have been named to the "Team Florida" squad that will travel to Chicago in April.

On the full roster are Newsome's Ryan Zakarian, Scott Vargas and Kyle Reigler, East Lake's Steven O'Neill and Michael Piatek, Tampa/Pinellas' Ryan Dyer, Steven Schlemon and Pat Trizis, Palm Harbor's Daniel van der Merwe and Wesley Chapel's T.J. Johnson.

HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY: Riverview/Durant got four goals from Joey Heyer as the combined team upset Freedom 6-4 in the Hillsborough High School Hockey League. Freedom's loss allowed Newsome Blue to move into sole possession of first in the standings after the Wolves picked up a win by forfeit from Newsome White.

Freedom had taken a 3-1 lead on goals by Zach Mulligan, Ed Kuba and Shaun Dickinson, but Heyer led Riverview/Durant's comeback in the second as he and Jason Wayne found the net to tie the game 3-3 going to the second intermission.

Heyer completed his hat trick to give Riverview/Durant its first lead of the game, but Kuba scored his second of the game to make the score 4-4 with a little over two minutes to play. But Heyer scored his fourth of the game, and league-leading 25th of the season, to restore Riverview/Durant's lead. Nick Feira added an empty-netter with 11 seconds to go to add to his four assists on the game.

Shane Hurley and Erik Kortum both had two goals and an assist as the Tigers remained two points ahead of Riverview/Durant with a 6-2 win against Bloomingdale.

With the teams tied 1-1 after the first period on goals by Hurley and Bloomingdale's Chris Binger, the Tigers scored three unanswered goals in the second period to take control. Hurley scored his second and Kortum his first of the game while Danny Lippleman also found the net for his first goal of the season.

Jason Jensen scored twice for George Jenkins, giving him 19 goals on the season, as the Eagles beat Plant 4-1. Brendan Baker added a goal and two assists for the Eagles.

Max Okun had the only goal for the Panthers.

Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243 or nmurray@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Youth Sports, for more news and notes.

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