The District 3 Bantam AAA ServiceMaster Clean Caps’ season came to an end on sheet C at the Red Ball Internet Centre last night after a 4-0 loss to the top seed Dieppe Flyers. The Caps had made it all the way to the semi-final with a 2-0-2 record in preliminary play.

After tying the Moncton Hawks 2-2 in the opening game of the tournament, the Caps then beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 6-3 and the Northern Blackhawks 2-0. Saturday morning the Caps played the KV Rangers, needing a win or tie to advance to the evening’s semi-final game. The teams traded second period powerplay goals, and ended with a 1-1 tie. Patrick Daley had the Caps goal and Tristan Meadows played a strong game in goal to secure the tie.

In the semi-final game the Caps faced the league’s regular season champs the Dieppe Flyers. Dieppe opened the scoring at the five minute mark of the first period on a shot from the slot that beat Caps’ goalie Tristan Meadows. Moncton scored a second goal in the second period for a 2-0 after two periods. The Caps played well but had trouble getting good quality shots on Flyer’s goaltender Julien Galloway. The Dieppe defence kept most shots to the outside of the slot area, and the Caps couldn’t find a way to get in top of Galloway for better chances. The Flyers scored a third goal with a about four minutes left in the game, and added a fourth goal on a 5-3 man advantage with 51 seconds left to play.

The Caps may have lost the semi-final, but the tournament was unquestionably a resounding success for the ninth-seeded Caps. The team play was outstanding throughout the tournament, with all player’s bringing their game up a notch. Congratulations to the coaching and management staff for putting together a solid Provincial strategy that saw the team raise a lot of eyebrows and earn the respect of the other team’s in the tournament.