Mar 17, 2013 | Justin Pullen | 1042 views
2013 Young Canada Consolation Champs!
March 8-15 Young
Canada Week Pee Wee Tournament. The 64th Annual Young Canada Week was an
experience of highs and lows for the Sailors, that ultimately ended in triumph
as they fought their way from behind to win the Consolation Championship!
The boys were perhaps still tired from their round robin
playoffs sweep for the first game of the tournament and suffered a tough 3-1
loss to BCH. Despite outplaying
the Ice Dogs, the BCH goalie was a wall and the one and only goal for the
Sailors went to Justin off a nice pass from Alex. The boys bounced back in the next game against the Tiverton
Thunder and outplayed and outmatched the Thunder in every way.
Despite a 50-1 ratio of shots on net, they couldn’t get one by the exceptional Tiverton goalie (which we suspect had sold his soul to the devil) - and the game ended scoreless. The close 3-1 loss and 0-0 tie game put the Sailors in a precarious position for points in order to move on. They would have to claw their way back in the third game against Drayton and win every period of the game! Drayton was on the scoreboard first soon into the game – but David answered back with a nice top shelf goal (assisted by Tyler) to tie the game 1-1. From that point, the game belonged to the Sailors who were back on ‘their game,’ with another goal by David off an assist from Alex to win the first period. Tyler landed the next goal for the Sailors on a breakaway and sniper shot. Tristan set-up Lucas for the next goal who made a nice shot in front of the Drayton net to win the second period. David (a.k.a. The Finchernator) secured a hat trick to make it 5-1 off an assist from Alex. Braeden and Nathan sealed the deal with 21 seconds in the game off Braeden’s blistering shot from the point that was tipped-in by Nathan. Winning the game 6-1, the boys did exactly what they needed to do to make it to the semi-finals in fourth place! All the boys played a great game, with awesome goaltending by Tom and some strong penalty killing.
The next game pitted the Sailors against the Kincardine Kinucks team - and win or lose would put them into either the Championship or Consolation Finals. Once again, the boys were on their game and gave the very LARGE Kinucks a run for their money. David landed the first goal of the game on a nice puck steal and rush to pot a ‘bar down’ goal. Kincardine tied things up in the second period on a powerplay and made it a very tight 1-1 game. The boys battled hard and game Kincardine a run for their money - with the game looking like it was heading for O-T due to some outstanding goaltending by Mike and strong Sailors’ defense. Unfortunately, Kincardine landed another powerplay goal with less then a minute left to take the win. It was a tough game to lose – but was great practice for the upcoming final playoffs against the Kinucks. Bottomline – stay OUT of the penalty box boys and you can take these guys!
The loss against Kincardine was perhaps the best thing that could have happened, as a win would have pitted the Sailors against the very rough Teeswater Otters (a quasi-rep team) who ultimately beat Kincardine 4-1. Instead, the Sailors were paired with the Seaforth Stars in a battle for the Consolation Championship. The boys came out strong, but Seaforth landed the first goal of the game on a powerplay. David answered back in the second period with a nice unassisted goal to tie the game 1-1. Alex then secured the go ahead goal on tip-in off a shot from Lucas to make it 2-1. Alex then got the comfort goal in the third period off an assist from Justin to make it 3-1. Seaforth battled back hard against the Sailors and Tom made some awesome saves to keep things on track – however, with 5 minutes left on the clock the Stars closed the distance and made it a tense 3-2 game. The rest of the game was one of defensive play with the Sailors holding off the Stars’ right down to the last seconds of the game. With a classic ‘pull the goalie’ move by the Stars, the ‘Finchernator’ landed an empty net goal with 0.3 seconds left to end it 4-2! The win made the boys the Official LL Consolation Champs for Young Canada Week and received a trophy, medals - and will have a signed banner in the MRC to commemorate their victory! Way to go boys! Let’s get ready to play ‘YOUR GAME’ in the next round of playoffs!!