North Middlesex Tourney, Game 3, News, Novice Red, U9, 2014-2015 (Mt Brydges Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2014-2015 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Mar 15, 2015 | Patrick Watson | 722 views
North Middlesex Tourney, Game 3
After the first 2 games each team got seeded and paired up with an opponent based on their ranking for game 3. As luck would have it, we were seeded #3 and Elma Logan was seeded #6 and this meant we would meet again in game 3. Sometimes in tournaments the road to the finals can be easy and sometimes every game is a battle that could go either way. Novice Red definitely got the.......

tougher road. Elma Logan started out a bit slow in the tournament but they are a really good team. Their forwards rush back and really help out the defense...we knew all this going into game 3 and it was sure to be a close battle.
We were pumped and ready to go from the first faceoff when Cole Abbey scored our fist goal unassisted only 28 seconds into the first shift. Only 40 seconds later Cole Abbey out hustled the opponent and buried his second unassisted goal of his first shift making it 2-0 early in the game. The period continued and Elma Logan was starting to move a bit better. The game was end to end and they managed to score with 7:40 on the clock to narrow the gap. They are a solid team and kept pressing, I think we may have relaxed a bit after the early lead and it cost us. The opponent managed to score 2 more on us before the end of the first period making it 3-2.
The second period started out pretty much the same way as the first when Cole Abbey scored his 3rd unassisted goal of the game only 11 seconds into the 2nd period to tie the game at 3. We kept pressing in the 2nd and managed to outplay our opponent a bit and Cole Abbey scored his 4th unassisted goal of the game putting us up by 1 going into the 3rd. 
The 3rd period was end to end and Ben was playing great in net, he managed to stop a couple breakaways by Elma Logans big gun. We were pressing hard but nothing was going in. The opponent found the back of our net with 6:24 left on the clock tying the game at 4 each. Only 12 seconds later Elma Logan got another one I call an "adrenaline" goal which put us down one with 6:12 left on the clock. We needed to get moving and take the play to them! The intensity was high and we were playing hard. Our shots were going all over the place around their net, the only problem is nothing went in. Time was ticking down and we needed to think about pulling Ben at some point to get the extra attacker on the ice. With a little over 2 minutes left on the clock Elma Logan iced the put so we got a faceoff in their zone. We pulled Ben and went with 6 skaters to try and even this thing up! The puck dropped and Elma Logan took possession and managed to get by our defense and get a breakaway. I thought that was it for sure but their best player...wide open in front missed the open net...LOL...I couldn't believe it! We still had a chance. The play continued and we managed to get the puck to centre ice before one of their players made a great shot and scored on our open net. Things didn't look good at all now but we didn't give up. We kept Ben out and thought we still had time to score twice with 1:56 still on the clock. It wasn't meant to be when Elma Logan scored their 2nd open net goal at the 1:28 mark making the final score 7-4. 
We had 3 tough games and this game was much closer than the score appears. All our players played hard every shift and Ben had a great tournament in net! He is telling me he might want to be a goalie next year??? Karen & I will let him decide that this spring before registration. Anyone have goalie equipment for sale? :-)
Cole Abbey played a fantastic game today scoring all 4 of our goals. Your work ethic is simply amazing Cole! Keep up the great work. Congratulations to our Heart & Hustle Award winner tonight. Gilby Aarts played hard on defense and has been steadily improving all season. Great job Gilby! Gavin Hern was selected by the tournament officials to receive the MVP award for this game. Great job Gavin!
After our loss everyone was invited back to Tim & Cindy Haywood's home for a cocktail or two to help drown our sorrows. It was nice to see almost everyone there!! What a great group of parents and kids on Novice Red this year! I enjoy seeing the kids having so much fun and the parents meeting new people and enjoying the team comradery. 
Rest up and be ready for another tough opponent on Tuesday!

Coach Pat
Sponsors
Trueline Services Inc
Thanks to Rob Hern and Trueline Services Inc. for generously donating new practice jerseys for our team this season.