The weekend of January 18-20, 2013 proved to be another successful weekend for the Atom Gold Cougars. After 5 great games and a lot of swimming and team bonding the boys walked away with some more hardware to add to their collection. We were able to finish the tournament with all the players still on the ice and all of the coaches still on the bench... In the final game the boys beat the Chicago Hawks by a score of 3-1.
We headed down to the Detroit area for our first game on Friday. We were at the University of Michigan Dearborn campus facing the Knights. The Knights came out and scored the first goal but the boys played hard and at the end of the first game we ended up winning 3-2. Darius scored a hat trick but had strong support from Tim and Robert.
Gold's next game was against the Cowboys. The boys continue where they left off and played another strong game. The defence of Liam, Cary, Jacob and Memphis really stepped it up and didn't allow many good scoring chances. Gold's offence again was going out and creating many scoring opportunities. Kristian, Aidan and Noah had a strong game. At the end of the game it was another win with a score of 3-1.
Saturday morning arrived and Gold faced the Chicago Hawks. After a strong start and a hard shot by Kole the rebound was put in the net by Darius. The boys kept playing hard but the Hawks were playing just as hard. A couple of bounces and a couple of rebounds and the Hawks beat us 3-1. The boys kept their heads up and were preparing for the next game. The final round robin game was against the Mentors. Again the boys went out and played hard. We had many chances and if it wasn't for the post or the crossbar the game would have had a different outcome. With just over 2 minutes left in the game the Mentors scored and tied the game. The boys didn't give up and after the face off put a shot off the crossbar. The game ended in a tie and then we had to wait for the Mentors to play their final game to see if we would have a rematch against the Hawks.
We headed back to the University of Michigan to play for the Championship against the Hawks and the only team to beat us in the tournament. The boys knew what they had to do and they all had the support of the parents and fans in the stands. Halfway through the first period Kristian put in the rebound off of a shot from Jacob. Then halfway through the second period after a great pass by Memphis and strong play from Caden, William was sent on a breakaway. He didn't let the opportunity slip by and buried our second goal deep into the net. Not to be shut out the Hawks came back and scored to make it 2-1 after 2 periods. The third period was back and forth but again a great defensive effort from Liam, Cary, Jacob and Memphis. The forwards did a tremendous job backchecking and not allowing the Hawks to even it up. On top of this Griffin was on the top of his game turning away shots or stopping shots and not giving up the rebounds. With just under a minute left and the net empty for the Hawks Caden scored an empty net goal to secure the win. After the medal presentation and the winning team trophy presentation they announced the MVP of the game and awarded that to Griffin. In my opinion all the kids deserved the MVP for the way they played the entire tournament. They gave it everything they had every game and played 5 strong games. The boys should be extremely proud of what they accomplished this weekend. Thanks to the bench staff of Frank, Matt, Marty and Bill for their support and also our manager Paul and our parent rep Tracey for helping make this a very memorable weekend.
Atom Gold also got some great coverage on the OMHA website; click to read more
OMHA article Atom Gold