FOXBORO – New England Pro-Am Hockey’s 2015 Midget Fall Classic has come to an end with the South Shore Kings crowned as the tournament’s victor. They shutout the Bay State Breakers 3-0 on Monday at the Foxboro Sports Center in the U18 Division championship game.
It was with a raucous the U18 title match began, a thunderous hit in the Kings’ defensive end shattering a pane of glass just minutes into the contest. The hit shook the rink and shook awake the Kings, who – after changing ice surfaces – jumped on top of the Breakers and did not let up until the game’s conclusion, long stretched of time played in the Breakers’ defensive end.
Brett Bibeault put the Kings out front 1-0 just over a minute after play resumed following the broken glass, scoring at 4:17. Just over 2:30 after that, Mitchell Walinski – who netted the game-winner in the Kings’ semifinal match earlier in the day – gave South Shore some breathing room at 2-0, putting away the insurance goal at 6:49. Sergey Bezrukov tallied his side’s third and final goal on the power play at 12:45. It was the South Shore forwards fifth goal of the tournament.
Despite being the third highest scoring team in the U18 Division over the course of the weekend, the Breakers offense could not muster much against the Kings’ stout backend during the championship bout. Those chances they did, all were thwarted by Kings netminder Braden Fleming, who earned the championship shutout.
Fleming posted the clean sheet in the final, but it was battery mate Christian Maselli who was awarded All-Tournament goaltender honors after the game. Joining Maselli on the All-Tournament team were fellow Kings Steven Dumond and Max Alsarraf, named as forward and defenseman, respectively. Breakers forwards Shane Murphy and George Thurston, and defenseman Eric Travers rounded out the All-Tournament selections.
With seven goals and 11 points over the course of the Kings five game’s played at the Midget Fall Classic, Walinski was named the U18 Division’s All-Tournament Most Valuable Player.
