Dec 29, 2017 | Ryan Stewart | 236 views
Henderson's Pharmacy Tournament
The Goldiggers made a Christmas break road trip to the Niagara Region to play in the Henderson Pharmacy Tournament in Thorold, Ont. over the last 3 days. The kids sure love the away tournaments with the hotel stays and time spent with their teammates and I must admit I love the time spent almost as much as the kids do. I'm sure everyone would agree the primary goal of having fun and getting some quality time away with the team was certainly achieved. Here is how the hockey went down...
Game 1 was on Wednesday Dec 27 in the afternoon at 4:00pm which was a real bonus in my mind because it left us lots of time to travel to Thorold without having to get up a some hideous hour nobody should have to wake up for in order to get to a hockey game on time. In this opening game we faced a team from Clarington which is east of Toronto near Whitby. We came out looking very strong and dominated this game basically from the start. The final score was 5-0 for us. Our goal scorers were AJ Duffy, Ethan Bond (2), Braedan Viana, Logan Doxtater. Assists on Braedan's goal went to Will Stewart and Michael Duffy. All other 4 goals were unassisted. This was a mighty fine opening effort by all. Matt had the start in this game and Ben finished the last half in their usual rotation.
Game 2 was on Thursday at 10:30am. I'm starting to think Coach Ryan pulled some strings and cashed in a few Molson's coupons to get these nice ice times ;-). We were dressed and ready to play against a team from Thorold 1 team but we played in the old barn which is attached to the newer arena we played the day earlier. I can honestly say and I think everyone would agree the old arena is one of the coldest places on Earth. I don't think they use refrigeration in there, the air temperature will surely freeze everything solid upon contact. I did a continual tap dance at the door to keep the blood flowing through my toes throughout the game. We really need to win this game bad so we don't have any future games in this deep freeze. Thankfully that is what we did! Thorold has two strong LL teams and this game would prove to be much more of a test for us. After a hard 3 period battle the Goldiggers came out on top with a final score of 2-1. Konrad Doxtator opened the scoring on his first shift after just over 1 minute of play assisted by Sam Stewart. Late in the game Ethan Bond would score the winner assisted by Logan Doxtater. The game would end with the final score of 2-1. Ethan Bond worked hard every shift and earned the player of the game, great job Ethan!
Game 3 was later in the day on Thursday at 4:00pm against a team from Hespeler (not sure where that is?).Our kids,coaches and parents had some time to thaw out and we were ready for game 3. This team was a bit chippy and took a few penalties but that didn't intimidate the Goldiggers. We were very happy to be playing in the newer arena next door and really took the play to our opponent. The game would end with a final score of 6-1 for us. Our goal scorers were Michael Duffy, Konrad Doxtator, Ethan Bond, AJ Duffy and Braedan Viana (2). I can't forget to mention Braedan's goals were scored only 18 seconds apart on the same shift. How is that for a great shift!! Nice work Braedan, this earns you the player of the game award, AWESOME! The assists on the score sheet go to Logan Doxtater, Spencer Emerick, AJ Duffy, Spencer Whitney, Zac Fisher. Great team effort guys!
Game 4 was on Friday morning at 9:00am against Port Colbourne who battled there way to get to the semi-finals undefeated. Coach Mark put the kids through a pre-game warmup in the dressing room and I think it really helped! Our team played an amazing game here and completely bamboozled our opponent with a volley of great offense, defense, goaltending and we passed the puck around better than I can recall all season. At the end of 3 periods the Goldiggers had complete control and took our 4th win in a row by a score of 8-2. Goals were scored by Ethan Bond (2), AJ Duffy (2), Michael Duffy (3) and Sammy Stewart with 1. Assists on the sheet are to Will (2), Sam, Nick, Zac, Spencer, Konrad and Michael. Nice hat trick Michael! Great team effort here again! We have earned a spot in the final at 3:00pm.
The Championship final was against the other team from Thorold. They are a very solid squad and we would need to pull out all the stops and come up with another very solid performance similiar to the earlier contest. Both teams came out flying and we were first on the board with 1:25 left to play in the first period. Thorold was not deterred and managed to score the equalizer with just 1.8 seconds left in the first period. The second period saw another goal by our opponent with 52 seconds left in the 2nd to go up by 1 goal. Early in the 3rd period Throld would score again after we got caught in our own zone to go up by 2. We needed to get things turned around and that is what we tried to do, AJ Duffy scored an unassisted goal to narrow the gap. Just over a minute later, Ethan Bond cashed one assisted by Logan Doxtater to tie the game with 4:15 left in the 3rd. The opponent called a time out and tried to regroup. We are pumped and things were looking better until the 3 minute mark when a high shot snuck past Ben to put Thorold up by one. Coach Ryan called a timeout at the 1:34 mark and pulled Ben for an extra attacker. He loaded up a line and told the boys we needed to go for the goal and even it up. We tried hard and put lots of pressure on them but it wasn't meant to be. Thorold takes the win by a score of 4-3 for the Championship. Our player of the game was Ethan Bond who was selected by the coach of the Thorold team after the game, congrats Ethan!
We had some disappointed kids because it's tough to get so close and fall short. The coaches told the kids they had a very strong tournament and showed very well. It's tough to take the loss but it's also part of the game and our kids showed great sportsmanship in the tough defeat. Everyone should be very proud of their efforts and hold your heads high. We'll get them next time!
In closing I want to wish Carson and Liam a speedy recovery from your illnesses and we look forward to having you back in the lineup soon. Great job to the players moving to new positions to accomodate our short bench this week. You adjusted very well, I'm not sure Michael is going to want to go back on D again when Carson is back :-)
Enjoy the rest of your Christmas break! Hope to see many of you at practice tommorrow.
Trainer Pat