The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks are 2025-26 OEHL “A” champions.
The Winterhawks defeated the Tillsonburg Thunder 9-6 on Saturday night to sweep the “A” championship series and capture the Hugh McLean Trophy.
The Winterhawks showed no ill-effects of the three-hour bus ride to Tillsonburg, coming out of the gates with six goals in the first period.
Trevor Donaldson opened the scoring 2:38 into the game when Josh Urbshott sent him in alone to deke out the Tillsonburg goalie, but the Thunder answered right back 18 seconds later to tie the game.
The Winterhawks exploded for four goals in just over four minutes to blow the game open, at least temporarily.
Mike Fiegehen, Miles MacLean, Donaldson and Curtis Johnston all scored 4:35 apart to give the Winterhawks a 5-1 lead just past the midway point of the period.
Tillsonburg got one back before Fiegehen scored his second of the game when he tucked the puck behind Tillsonburg goalie Spencer Robertson to give the Winterhawks a 6-2 lead after one.
Being down four goals and facing a sweep, the Thunder could’ve easily folded up shop, but the home side battled in the second period, scoring three times.
MacLean responded with a tap-in goal for the Winterhawks off a nice play from Hudson Wiles and Justin Marlowe to make it a 7-5 game and it was still anybody’s game heading to the third period.
Eric Peicheff got the start in the Winterhawks net and he boarded up the net early in the third as the Thunder pushed to get to within one, making several huge saves.
All subsequent scheduled games are cancelled and the season is now complete.
The Winterhawks delivered the fatal blow on the power play at 14:21 when Wiles completed his incredible run as an affiliated player, scoring to make it 8-5 from Fiegehen and Rob Flick.
Wiles played just five games for the Winterhawks in the playoffs, scoring an incredible 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points from the defender, who is still a month away from his 19th birthday.
Marlowe put an exclamation point on it 40-seconds later from MacLean and Flick. Tillsonburg added a goal of little consequence to make it a 9-6 final score in favour of the Winterhawks.
The final buzzer crowned the Winterhawks as “A” Champions for the first time, ending the 2025-26 season on a positive note and creating optimism heading into the offseason.
The Winterhawks wish to thank our loyal fans and sponsors for another season of unwavering support, in particular the fans that made the long trek to Tillsonburg and all other road trips to cheer on our team.
The club will host the annual awards banquet at Lakeshore Recreation on May 1st. Full details will be shared in the near future.
