Back on November 24th the Scotia Bank Mitchell Meteor AE team started their journey towards earning the right to play at the prestigious International Silver Stick tournament held in Niagara by winning the South Huron Regional Tournament .
We started this International tournament last Thursday morning by playing the Colorado Eagles and beating them. Starting the scoring at this epic event was Joey Hill releasing a blazing shot from the point. Kyle Eisler continued the scoring for Mitchell with Carter Yost finishing it. When the buzzer finally sounded the scoreboard read 3-0 with Bradley Boville earning his first of three shutouts and giving the boys their first win of the tournament.
Later that day we played our second game against another American team, the Delaware Ducks from Pennsylvania. A little tougher team, but Soloman Koert start the scoring in the second. Mark Knill increased our lead to 2-0 late in the third with just .9 seconds left. Bradley Boville earned himself his second shutout. Our next game would be Friday morning against the home town favourite, Pelham Panthers. Unfortunately for the Panthers, this year would be different from last years meeting between the two teams.
The grudge match was apparently only going to be one sided as Soloman Koert started the scoring, quickly followed by Tanner Meinen, Sam Snyders, Evan MacArthur, Meinen again and finally Mark Knill finishing the scoring, making the final score 6-0 with Boville earning his third shut out of the tournament.
Our next game later that day would be against Dorchester, top team in their pool and would be our biggest challenge so far. It would also be the most excruciating game to watch for the fans as both teams were very evenly matched.
Mitchell stuck first with Sam Snyders putting in our only goal during the first. All was looking good until Dorchester netted a short handed goal in the middle of the third. A shoot out was going to determine the game winner and with Bradley Boville stopping all 8 Dorchester shooters, Tanner Meinen finally ended the suspense 2-1. It was during this game we suffered our first causality with Soloman Koert severely spraining his ankle and would not return for the reminder of the tournament. This win moved us to the semi finals against Orangeville.
Our semi final game Saturday morning was by far our biggest challenge throughout the entire year. Speaking with the Guelph coach the day before, he told me Orangeville had an “AA” program and then a “AE” program resulting in numerous “AA” experienced players on the team we would be playing in the morning. He also told me they were fast, big and skilled. The Guelph coach’s scouting report was accurate, a very good team. Orangeville also has a population 5 times that of Mitchell to draw from.
In the semi final game Mitchell found themselves trailing 2-0 at the end of the first. The Orangeville goals continued and part way through the second it was 3-0. At 7:18 of the second, Curtis Chaffe received a devastating boarding hit breaking his leg in two places. The Orangeville player was ejected and a 5 minute major assessed. At 5:52 the score became 4-0 and at the end of the second it was 5-0.
At the 10:15 mark of the third Darren Feltz put the puck behind their goalie making it 5-1. This was the first goal scored against Orangeville all weekend. Orangeville scored again at 6:21 making it 6-1. At 6:08, Kyle Eisler made it 6-2 and with just 23 seconds left Even MacArthur finishes the scoring at 6-3, unfortunately this loss would eliminate Mitchell from the tournament. The boys showed true character and heart by not quitting, and those are life lessons and something that cannot be taught!
Although not every player was able to contribute to the score, it does take a team to create opportunities so someone can hopefully capitalize on those opportunities. All the boys played with great intensity, huge hearts and true passion. As a team and as individuals, they all should be very proud of their performance, we as parents certainly are! Thank you for providing some great hockey to watch…
Goalies were Bradley Boville and Austin Weir (injured). On defence were Joey Hill, Jason Mills, Curtis Chaffe, Matthew Crawford and Dominic Voros. On the front end were Mark Knill, Evan MacArthur, Cater Yost, Drew Scherbarth, Darren Feltz, Sam Snyders, Soloman Koert, Tanner Meinen and Kyle Eisler. A big thank you to the coaching staff, Jack Chaffe, Shawn Snyder, Matt Wietersen and Warren Scherbarth.