Essex, Wheaton looking to extend winning ways

A local goalie is leading the effort for his team as they look to defend their Schmalz Cup championship title.

 

It took three straight Schmalz Cup appearances before the Essex 73’s won the title on their fourth attempt. It is now a year later and the 73’s have 11 players from that team returning for this year’s playoff run. Expectations are high for Essex after posting the best regular season record in the league winning 34 games and losing three in regulation expectations are high. A large factor to that record is between the pipes from soon to be 21 year old goaltender Trevor Wheaton.

 

Wheaton finished the 2015 – 2016 season with a 24-3-1 record while earning a 0.946 save percentage and sporting a 1.31 goals against average with six shutouts. Which was good enough in all the categories to earn him the top goalie in the league honours and league MVP.

 

One of the 11 returning players is defenceman Matthew Rosati, who has spent two season with Wheaton. Rosati said Wheaton has been unbelievable for the team

 

“There’s a reason he won league MVP. He puts us in a great position to win every single night,” said Rosati. “He makes every save he is supposed to and then a couple more he’s not supposed to. All that being said I think our entire team in front of him has been playing great and limiting the opposition’s quality scoring chances too.”

 

The 73’s have been hosting the Alvinston Flyers in the first round of the playoffs. In the first three games of the series, Wheaton has posted shutouts and the team has gone on to win 9-0, 6-0 and 6-0.

 

Wheaton said he has been playing well but has to credit his success to the team in front of him.

“It’s not just me, our defence is playing a really good game right now and they are making good decisions in our zone,” said Wheaton. “Our defence is keeping shots to the outside, giving me the easy shots so I make the saves I gotta make. Bryan Spearing, our goalie coach, has been running us through drills, brings out the video and makes sure we see what we are doing wrong in games so we are really fixing our errors.”

 

Rosati said he knows that teams have heard about the team and Wheaton’s success but is confident if they just keep at their systems they can progress.

 

“He won back-to-back Western Conferences in Leamington the past two years and a Great Lakes title with a run to the Schmalz before that,” said Rosati. “I’m sure teams may try to get in his head but they did that to Hedrick last year too and we were able to overcome it. He just has to stay focused and let us players deal with anything unnecessary going on. We’re a tight group in that locker room and I know all 23 of us will be looking out and standing up for each other.

Rosati, Wheaton and the rest of the Essex 73’s are in action Friday night as the team travels to Alvinston for game four, as they look to advance to the semi-finals of the Great Lakes Junior “C” playoffs.