Jan 03, 2013 | rheywood | 1448 views
"A" Final Tournament Champions
Novice Green goes undefeated in Mitchell Hawks Tournament...
The Irish Green team was fired up and determined to prove to themselves and others that they were worthy of winning the cup at the 4th Annual Mitchell Hawks tourney and they did just that!!!
It was on the road at 6:30am as Lucan opened the tourney with an early morning game against Goderich at 8am The players showed no signs of being tired as they suited up in the room prior to the drop of the puck. The first half of the game seen both teams trade scoring chances and big time saves from their goaltenders, but the Irish's hard work and persistence broke down the opponents defense and led them to a 9-2 victory in the opener.
Next match was against divisional opponents St.Marys and proved to be a tighter tilt. This game was every bit of a nail biter and both teams played extremely hard through regulation time, deadlocked at 3 a piece, sending the game into overtime. After a quick break, the 4 on 4 OT began and you could see it in the eyes of each skater that they were not going to let up on their work ethic and on the second line change, only 2 minutes into OT Codie S-R fired a quick snapshot from the high slot that found the bottom corner and sent the fans into a frenzy and erupted the Irish bench. With these two wins it was straight to the finals for Lucan!!
Tensions grew, waiting for the final match at 6:30pm and who the opponent would be and as it turned out Dorchester would lose to home town Mitchell to determine the final.
The Irish seemed undaunted that they would be facing the hometown heroes and fans in the final and prepared identically as they had for the prior battles.
Lucan once again started the game with the same line as they did in the Goderich match, almost to prove that this was to be a sure victory. However they were in for a fight as Mitchell was not taking this game lightly. The first and second periods seen a steady flurry of action back and forth and ended with no scoring. Mitchell came out hard in the third and at the 9 minute mark they opened the scoring on a screen shot in front. Although the Irish were back on their heels a bit after being scored on, they stayed true to their positional play and back checking game. They continued to motivate each other on the bench and ice surface, and finally got on the scoreboard with 5 minutes left in the game on a goal mouth scramble when the puck popped loose and they hammered it past the Mitchell netminder.
Lucan had life again and almost as if scripted from Game 1, the Irish tore out of the centre ice face off circle immediately following their goal and charged down to bury their second goal in a span of 8 seconds to take the lead. Once again the bench blew up with cheers and high fives and with 5 minutes left in the game the message was clear by all players..........this day would be theirs. The fighting Irish hunkered down and played as a five player pack in both offensive and defensive zones. With Chelsea S. in the Lucan net making some big saves late in the game and coming up huge once again in the final minute, as Mitchell made a last ditch effort to tie the game with their goalie pulled, we were able to pull out a third straight victory to win the tournament.
Clara C. with her patented centre ice "Hockey Hop" was deservedly awarded the tournament MVP. Congratulations Clara!
Make no mistake though, this trio of victories was the result of all 13 players working extremely hard and playing unselfishly as a team. From the moment we arrived in Mitchell at 7am, through our midday bowling game in Stratford and our team meal before games 2 and 3, we interacted as a team and showed fantastic team spirit and sportsmanship.
We are proud of each and everyone that played a part in this day, both off an on the ice.
The Bench Staff.