Oct 22, 2013 | novice | 750 views
NORSTAR BEARS HUNT FOR Ws IN CALEDONIA
The NorStar Novice Bears headed south to Haldimand County for the Caledonia Challenge Cup the weekend of October 18th - 20th, and displayed the bond they were developing together as a team.
The first game pitted the Bears against the Dorchester Dragons where the Bears got themselves into a early hole due to residual affects of "car legs" and the long drive. However, in the second period they became a more cohesive unit, with calm logical passing and plays and managed to close the gap. The Bears dug deep and went ahead by two with a few minutes left in the third for an all around solid 6-4 win and a great way to begin the tournament.
Game two was an early Saturday morning start with a match up against the Ingersoll Express. Once again, the Bears struggled to wake up during the first period and seemed to succumb to an earlier than normal hibernation. The Bears went down 1-0 with just over 4 minutes left in the first period. However, mighty Mitchell Hammond intercepted a pass to tie it up with 3 minutes to go. The Bears found difficulty getting on the puck and Ingersoll capitalized with the go ahead goal as the clock showed 2 mins ticking away. Ingersoll stayed on the puck for the second period and climbed their way to a 4-1 lead. The third period displayed much of the same hard puck stealing and with some muscle, Aydan Downer shouldered his way through two defenders to get up the ice into the Ingersoll zone and ring one into the back of the net. The Bears couldn't shake themselves from the cobwebs and fell 4-2 to the Express.
The final game of the round robin was against the Mt. Brydges Cougars on Saturday afternoon. The Bears were in a do or die must win situation to advance to the Pool playdowns on Sunday. It came down to goals for and against with a win to move on. This game was phenomenal on the edge of your seat hockey. Fast end to end play, fore checking, back checking and some sick goal tending by the Cougars kept this one close. Graydon Guthrie opened up the scoring to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Only seconds later the Cougars tied it up. With just over a minute to play the Cougars put another past the Bears net minder Brody Dann to go up 2-1. The second period almost went scoreless until Reece Thompson stuck one in 5 hole to tie it up. With 43 seconds left in the 2nd Guthrie muscled his way in for the go ahead goal. The Cougars showed the Bears they were the predominant predator and tied it up 3-3 with 28 seconds to go. The third period was going to be a doozy! As anticipated the majority of the third period was a hard fight end to end. With just under 5 minutes left Downer took a pass from Dman Ty Mac and went in with a low left corner shot for the go ahead goal. The Bears looked to be in control all they had to do was hold on and keep control for the last few minutes. That they did but as the clock ran down so did the Bears ability to keep the puck out of their own end and with 52 seconds left after the Cougars pulled their goalie a 6 on 5 resulted in the Cougars stuffing one in amidst a mess in front of the Bears net. It was now a 4-4 tie and difficult for the Bears to rally to score the winner. With the bench deflated the Bears had to settle for the tie and with goals against unfortunately did not allow them to advance.
The entire team played phenomenal hockey all weekend and enjoyed time away from the rink to bond and build their friendships and camaraderie.