14-15 Progressive WS Major Midget | Dec 08, 2014 | Tyard | 1063 views
Kingston Midget 'A' Tournament CHAMPS!
This past weekend, seeking some strong teams to help us prepare for the playoffs, the Bears traveled to Kingston. They did find every team to be strong and it turned out to be the perfect challenge requiring a maximum effort to succeed!
With a minimum of 4 games to play, the boys had to get on the ice for a 2 pm game Friday. Perhaps they were a little road weary because the Bears couldn't manage much in the way of offence. Through 2 periods it was tied 0-0. It was a different kind of officiating and playing a man short far too often finally caught up as the Duffield Devils scored with just over a minute remaining in the game. With our goalie pulled and some good pressure, the boys pulled out a tie with Jobson scoring on a pass from Delarosbil. It was a good indication that nothing was going to be easy this weekend!
Game 2 on Friday evening was vs NobleKing. Once again the officiating took some getting used to. Neither team seemed to understand that the Ref was going to let battles for pucks get very rough so long as the puck stayed the focus... but an obvious retaliation was going to be penalized! The Bears were starting to find their game however and scored twice in the 1st, twice in the second and after allowing NobleKing to close the gap in the 3rd with 2 of their own, put the game away late in the 3rd for a solid 5-2 win!
The 3rd game was on Saturday with the boys playing a very strong Stittsville Ram team. The Bears were sluggish right off the bat and allowed 2 Stittsville goals before the 7 minute mark of the 1st period. It was literally a wake-up call! The rest of the game it could be said the Bears were the stronger team, but they couldn't overcome their bad start, nor crack a very good Ram goalie so the game ended in a 0-2 loss. This left the Bear record at 1-1-1 and requiring a win in their 4th game to advance to the semis. For whatever reason, the Bears were not ready for the start of this one... something that had to be corrected if they hoped to win anything more this weekend or in the future.
Saturday afternoon was the 4th game vs the Leitrim Hawks. Responding positively to their poor morning start, the boys got on the board early in this one but the Hawks answered right back with one of their own. Before the 1st ended however, captain Davis came thru on a feed from Ellard to score what proved to be the game winner. It was close the rest of the way and the Bears sealed the win with an insurance goal with just seconds remaining. With some hard work, the Bears sewed up a place in the semis!
With the prospect of missing out on the tourney playoffs barely dodged, a relieved group of players and parents went together to watch the Kingston Frontenacs, Dan Wood's former Jr. team, play the Niagara Ice Dogs. It was a great game with the best possible outcome with extra shooters in a shoot-out. Perhaps this was a boost for the boys knowing one of their Dads played at such a high level... because the next day they were certainly inspired!
The Semi Final was a re-match with the Duffield team that we tied in the 1st game. While Duffield was the same tough team, the Bears were very different and showed they learned from the penalty filled previous encounter. This game was as close to a perfect team performance as we've seen all year. The boys allowed the opposition no room, no time or space and they completely dominated! The score ended 5-0 with a well deserved shut-out to James Gee who made great saves when needed. Most amazing for this game was the fact that for the Bears it was a very rare PENALTY FREE game. The difference when playing even-strength or on the PP was evident on the score board!
This set the stage for another rematch to avenge the boy's only loss this weekend to the Stittsville Midgets. The coaches stressed the effort and disciplined play that allowed the Bears to dominate in the previous game, but in such a long tough weekend, the question was... could they sustain this style of play and effort? The answer was YES! The boys came out flying! They scored twice unanswered in the 1st and got another early in the 3rd before Stittsville started to come back. Stittsville scored again to come within one but as he has before this season, Waters scored a very timely goal, the kind that is well deserved of great effort and discipline and this gave the Bears a little breathing room. A little more room was acquired on a great effort by Tasnadi, scoring a clean shot that saw nothing but net. Stittsville didn't quit, scoring again but it was too little too late and MacGibbon wired a long shot from centre into the open net to ice the Championship! It was also a great game for Owen Nudd who made some great stops when Stittsville mounted a comeback attempt.
In a long weekend it would be tedious to mention every goal and assist... but after the championship game the Coaches mentioned that the two final games this weekend, represented the best consecutive efforts this team has had all year. Every single player raised their game, their compete level and made a contribution in their role, something these Bears will hopefully have learned and remember for the playoffs that are just around the corner. It was a great weekend for everyone!