Apr 01, 2017 | Heather Monden | 1191 views
A CHAMPIONSHIP WIN WORTHY OF A FIRETRUCK RIDE
Little did anyone know that this game would take
almost 2 and a half hours, but when you have two teams as evenly matched as the
Scotiabank Bantam LL Meteors and the South Bruce Blades it really was no
surprise. The Meteors made one final
trek to Mildmay last night for their fourth and final game of the WOAA White Division
Championship. And what a game it was.…
At exactly 8:30pm Mitchell and South Bruce met head to head at centre ice for the most important game of the season. The whistle tweeted and they were off. Mitchell got the puck over their opponent’s blue line first…good things were surely destined for the rest of the game. But Mildmay was not about to have a repeat of Thursday night’s game. They attacked the puck immediately forcing it in our end and proceeded to fire shot after shot on Stevie DAUM. DAUM, too, was on fire blocking everything that came at him. The teams went end to end exercising both goalies to the max. Just over 5 minutes into the game the talented number 4 from South Bruce once again outskated our boys, deeked out DAUM and impressively launched the puck right over his head giving South Bruce the “first goal of the game” advantage with the assist going to their captain, #15. Later in the period #15 attempted a break away, but Brent “PUFF” SMITH used his super speed to catch up and foil his scoring attempt mere inches from the front of our net. Mitchell’s D played an impressive game all night and plays like that were also performed by Curtis CHAFFE, Denzyl FINLAYSON and Dominic VOROS. Despite their effort, the period ended 1 to 0 for South Bruce.
Total team effort on both ends of the rink was exhibited during the 2nd period. Our guys just could not catch a break though. Forwards, Wade MONDEN, Josh BEDOUR, Will STEINBACH, Basil VOROS, Curtis “CHEESE” DEJONG (who I think I saw playing a little D this game as well), Cole WILTON, Carter YOST, Kole HUNT and Jaden FAULKNER all put forth 100 percent effort which was needed or they surely would have met their demise with South Bruce. At one point Mitchell literally shot 10 times on net in a row and nothing. The period continued in this fashion and the scoreboard remained 1 nothing for them.
A little rest and a few oranges later and the Meteors stormed back on the ice for the 3rd period. YOST along with line mates, Dominic VOROS and HUNT, got right down to business and within minutes made a few passes allowing YOST to plant the puck right between the pipes! YOST performed a well deserved celly for his fans, and the excitement level in the arena raised about 100 percent. The game was now tied! No one was backing down and as the clock rapidly descended; it became very apparent that we were taking this game into overtime.
Thank goodness Mitchell has a lot of practice fighting off powerplays as they spent four of the 10 minute OT period in the sin bin. During the “first” OT period I should say. Back and forth, back and forth…”score already”! But no, nothing. 10 minutes came and went and the scoreboard still read 1 to 1.
The boys had now run out of water in the 5th OT period, but they had not run out of determination. The battle continued and much like the last period, minus the penalties…I think the refs were getting tired too, it ended…tied…AGAIN! One more OT period to go.
The Constitution states that this final game would go to three OT periods. That’s it. So, 10 minutes sprang up on the clock and a tired bunch of teens took to the ice. They continued to play the same game, just at a much slower pace. The goalies continued to be pelleted by the puck and both boys dug down deep and blocked EVERYTHING that came at them. Power line MONDEN, BEDOUR and YOST faced off in their end with 50 seconds left on the clock. I’ve never seen these boys work so hard as they did tonight. Several scoring attempts and face-offs later the clock once again ran out of time. Now what? The game was over. The scoreboard read 1 to 1. It was a tie. Kinda takes the wind out of your sails; doesn’t it? Where is that rush? That roar from the crowd that brings tears to your eyes when your boys score the winning goal and win the whole thing. Or on the flip side, the tears of defeat, knowing your team gave it everything they had and lost by just one goal. That didn’t happen. But what did happen was two amazing teams played their hearts out, didn’t give up and deservingly both became CHAMPIONS!
Now let’s go take a lap around town on the firetruck to celebrate our teams amazing accomplishment…metaphorically speaking that is!