The Bracebridge Muskoka Riverside Inn peewee Bears defied the odds by beating the heavily favoured Parry Sound Shamrocks to clinch the Muskoka-Parry Sound championship.

Prior to this upset, the Bears completed a strong regular season, placing second in the league standings, tied with Highland Storm. The first-place team at the end of the regular season was Parry Sound. Bracebridge went on to play Huntsville in a best-three-of-five series in the OMHA playdowns, beating Huntsville in game five to take the lead and move on to play Parry Sound.

Parry Sound then swept Bracebridge in three games straight in their OMHA series. However, this was not the end of the line for Bracebridge.

The Bears began their MPS playdowns in Feb­ruary against their equally matched competitor Highland Storm. Bracebridge won the series allowing them to advance again to play Parry Sound.

The final round of this peewee MPS playdown series was set up as a one-game, winner-takes-all event taking place in Parry Sound on Sunday, March 30. The first goal went to Parry Sound halfway through the first period, but Bracebridge fought back and at the beginning of the second Carter Tracey scored for Bracebridge, putting them on the scoreboard.

The game continued back and forth between the two teams until the third period when Bracebridge ended the game with a three-point lead with a final score of 7-4. Both Bracebridge goalies, Landan Peleikis and Remington Fielding had a great game.

The whole team played well and the scoring was spread evenly throughout the lines with goals going to Carter Tracey, Carson Low, Steven Greavette and Brandon Little. The other forwards, Tristan McNabb, Josh Bissonette, Ethan Nudd, Graham Finch and Mitchell Augustine all played hard and had a fantastic game. The defence, Zosia Davis, Jack Campbell, Riley Vogels, Russell Stirling and Evan Wilding stood strong, worked together and played an incredible game with the final results to prove it.

Congratulations to everyone on a great season and the final victory.