Oct 25, 2015 | bdavidson | 888 views
Triple Overtime Thriller in Wiarton
The NorStar Novice Bears made the 3 hour trip to the home of the famous Wiarton Willie for their first tournament of the year, the Austin Holley Memorial. For many of the players, this was their first experience of ever travelling away for a weekend tournament and what a weekend it was.
After a fun Friday night of swimming and socializing the NorStar Bears got off to a fast start Saturday morning opening the days games with a 7-0 win against the host Bruce Peninsula Predators. A strong effort between the pipes and a season high 50 completed passes were the main factors in coming out of the gate so strong. T. Babcock was the first goalie to take home a tournament shut out award and the game MVP while C. Carlson notched the first tournament hat-trick award.
After an afternoon of hotel fun the Bears took to the ice against the defending tournament finalist Lucan Irish in the final game of Saturday. J.Jennings opened the scoring for the Bears while taking home the game MVP with the help of linemates P. Boyde and T. Jennings. E. Guthrie stood tall tending the cage and was able to turn back some point blank shots from the bigger and more aggressive Irish squad. Camping out in front of the net, E. Brown tipped home a beauty point shot from G. Cardwell to tie the game late in the second period. The line of B. Mackinnon, J. Chamber and B. Clayton continued their season long offensive onslaught by putting the team ahead in the third but a late Lucan tally tied the game at 3-3.
Following tournament rules of the lowest GA settling any tie breaks the Bears placed first in their division and were in the championship game to be played Sunday afternoon against the Defending champs, Georgian Shores Lightning.
Championship Sunday lived up to its billing in every aspect. After falling behind early, some tape to tape passing that's has become the norm from the back end of E. Gliddon, C. Walker and W. Davidson broke the team out and got them on the board. After the final buzzer both teams were tied at 3 and off to overtime they would go.
For the first time in the tournament history, the championship game was not settled by the end of two overtime periods and down to a single player per team they went entering a final minute. With the best of efforts by all the Bears it just wasn't meant to be and L. Downer's extra effort saw her walk away with the final game M.V.P award. The coaching staff could not be more proud of the team.
The team was able to hold their heads high at what was a very successful first weekend away both on and off the ice. Although they didn't come away with a final win, they all came away with a memory and memories that will last for a very long time. Great job NorStar Bears