This past weekend the Scotiabank Mitchell Bantam LL boys traveled to Wallaceburg for their third tournament of the season.
The boys had a tough go in the round robin play, finishing third in their pool of four teams. The first game in round robin play was against the North London Nationals at 10:00pm Friday night. The boys came out to play winning the game 8-1. In order to be first overall and get a bye to the Semis (skipping the quarters at 9am Sunday morning after playing again at 10:00pm Saturday night) we would have to win the next two games. The boys must have wanted to get the biggest bang for their buck and ended up falling short and loosing the second and third games (2-1 to Wallaceburg TC2 and 3-1 to KMHA Canadians HL2 respectively) in round robin play squeaking us into the quarters in third place in our pool.
The Quarter Final game would be against the second place team in Pool A, Mooretown Jr. Flags LL1. With the boys refocused and their backs against the wall, they came out hard, fast, and disciplined and were rewarded as Joey Adams opening the scoring at 6:48 in the first, unassisted. Coulter Rolph added to the lead with a shot from the point finding its way into the back of the net, assisted by Kurtis DeJong and Breadon McLean. leaving the score at 2-0 at the end of the first. Our third goal was scored at 6:05 by Josh Duncan with one of his intense slappers from the point, assisted by Rolph and Evan Mac Arthur. It wasn't until late in the third when Mooretown final sneaked on past Monden to end the second 3-1. The third period was an intense back and forth play with the forwards back checking like their tournament life depended on it. The final score being 3-2 for the good guys.
The Semis Finals would be against the Wallaceburg Lakers TC1 who had placed first in their pool and rumor had it, have only lost one game this season. Now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and even more focused, the Scotiabank Mitchell Bantam LL boys applied pressure on the opposing team like they have never seen before. Brett Poirier started the scoring off at 3:22 in the first assisted by Adams. The second period was full of back and forth play, the defense playing a solid game keeping the shots on Monden down to a minimum. Mooretown did managed to sneak one in with 4:25 left in the second to tie the game at 1 a piece. But Mitchell would have none of that, just over a minute later Mac Arthur would bang one home from a absolutely beauty of a pass from DeJong to retake the lead and the momentum. Under a minute later Donimic Voros would snipe a beauty of a point shot from a excellent heads up pass from Will Steinbach to end the second with a 3-1 lead. The final score of the game was 4-1 as Adams popped an empty netter, handing them their second loss of the season.
The Finals (third game of the day, sixth of the weekend) would be against the Wallaceburg Lakers TC2 who we lost to in round robin play. Knowing this would be a tough game, as the boys were tired from the previous two battles that day, the coaches tried to pump them up and focus them on the end goal. But it was the motivational words from Basil Voros that stuck with the team and helped them push through this last and final game. With the team refocused and ready to play, just 42 seconds after the puck dropped Mac Arthur opened the scoring with assists to Adams and Poirier. The team controlled the play for the remainder of the period, only giving up one, to end the first in a 1-1 tie. The second period brought out the best in Jaden Faulkner and Basal Voros, both having their best games of the season with some awesome and aggressive forechecking and backchecking, helping their team stay in the game. With 1:48 seconds left in the second period, Denzel Finlayson, with a perfectly place shot, scores the second and eventual game winning goal assisted by DeJong and McLean. The third was again a hard fought period with every one of the players battling their hearts out and Monden making the key saves to lead the team to victory and earning their gold medals by defeating their opponent 2-1.
Congratulations boys!! 3 Tournament = 3 Gold's