Feb 18, 2019 | Mark Emerick | 797 views
Families First Tournament
Our team participated in our last tournament of the season in Windsor this weekend. I must admit when I first saw our schedule I was grumbling a bit under my breath. It didn't start too bad with our first game at 9:20 Saturday morning. Our 2nd contest was later Saturday night at 7:20pm then the really nasty one was bright and early Sunday at 7:10am. It would be interesting to see our boys get dragged out of bed and play hockey at such an ungodly hour after a late game the night before.....
The weekend started out good on Friday evening as the team slowly gathered at the Holiday Inn on Huron Church Road to get settled in for the weekend. As usual on any road tournaments, the majority of the parents and players met and enjoyed some time together in the hotel on Friday night. Ben brought his X-Box and NHL19 game and set it up in the hotel room. This proved to be a hit and many of the players gathered and the competitions were under way even before we got to the arena.
The next morning was game 1 and our team showed up ready to play a host Riverside team called the Trophey Boys. They gave us a good battle but we prevailed and won the contest 6-3 to open the tournament on a positive note. I don't have copies of the game sheets so I'll spare the details and just mention some highlights of each game so I don't get too long winded. One that immediately comes to mind in this game was Cole Haywood's huge blast from high in the slot which buried his first goal of the season. He was pumped and very excited which was nice to see. Coach Mark awarded Cole the MVP award for this game acknowledging his 1st goal. Great job Cole! Congratulations.
Later in the day our Team Manager, Jamie Kopal arranged a team building event at Springz Trampoline & Fun Zone Park. The kids enjoyed a couple hours of fun stuff and a pizza lunch. After that we went back to the hotel for a bit of swimming before preparing for our evening game. The kids had a great time in the pool and looked forward to seeing my famous belly flop at 3:45pm. For some reason I was a bit disappointed with my flubbed flops this year, I tried twice but just couldn't achieve the loud belly smack every serious belly flopper is looking for. Maybe next time I'll have to let the kids have a contest and I'll be the judge :-)
Our 2nd game of the round robin was played at 7:20pm Saturday night against another host Riverside team called
Brevon Concrete Cutting. This time around our boys were like sharks in a feeding frenzy and took the game with a 8-0 victory. We had goals from a number of different players including Carson Kechego who contributed to the scoring with a hat trick and played an outstanding game. He was the deserving recipient of the game MVP award decided by the coaching staff.
The next morning was the early one that we all dreaded. The kids had a big day Saturday and were up a bit later than they should have been since our late game the night before. Some were a bit sluggish getting out of bed including me but all the boys made it on time although a couple cut it pretty close :-). The early Sunday morning didn't slow us down too much as the kids took our 3rd win in a row with a 3-0 victory. Paolo Casavecchia had a excellent game with an outstanding effort and scored at least 1 goal (maybe 2). The coaches selected Paolo for our game 3 MVP, Congratulations Paolo! Nice work! This 3rd win in a row would put us in first place going into the semi-finals.
The 4th game was scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 2:00pm against a very good team from LaSalle. They were undefeated in their first 3 games of the round robin as we were so this semi-final contest was shaping up to be a beauty. Looking back, I can say that in all the years I've watched Ben play hockey. This game easily takes top spot for me in pure entertainment value and fun. I believe this is true for most of the parents and grandparents that attended the game as well. By the end of the game the crowd had seriously swelled to about 200 people jammed in watching the contest unfold. The game was an end to end battle pretty much from start to finish. Both sides had lots of chances and both of the goalies were making lots of quality saves to keep the game to 1 goal each.
The rules in this tournament send this game straight to a shootout at the end of regulation time if the teams are tied, no sudden death overtime is played. We were the home team as we finished 1st overall in the round robin so we were 2nd to shoot. Ben was ready, my hair was turning another shade of grey as the strongest player on the LaSalle team started on the 1st shot. Ben stood tall and made a great save! The kids went wild as Coach Mark picked Carson to take our first shot. Off he went and the LaSalle goalie made also the big save. Round two, both goalies prevailed once again with huge saves. The crowd was starting to swell in the arena and the kids were going crazy every time their goalie made another save. This shootout would go 11 rounds before Lasalle managed to score on Ben. We had the last shot to keep the shootout going and our hopes alive. Lynden Luis was next in line to shoot and made no mistake. He scored to even it up at 1 each after 11 rounds. I couldn't believe it but we were off to round 12. The arena was now packed and the viewing windows on the second floor were also jammed with people. Lasalle started down the ice and the player took a hard low slapshot from the slot and the puck managed to make its way through Ben's 5 hole. We would need to bury the next one to stay alive once again. It wasn't meant to be as we missed the shot and the game was over. LaSalle would move on to the final later that night. One can say we didn't win this game but I can honestly say in a game like this, there is no losers. Everybody won in this contest if you measure success by shear fun and excitement had by all. How many times can you say you witnessed a shootout where every single player on the bench had at least one shot in the shootout? The amazing experience and fantastic memories created in this tournament is something that every player and family member can take from this game. I know the other parents that watched this contest and the players will never forget this experience. After the game Coach Mark told all the kids in the dressing room he was very proud of the way they competed and gave it their best effort. The game MVP award was given to Ben and he was very excited to receive it.
Congratulations to each and every player who participated! The ultimate goal of any team in a tournament is to come together as a team and come home proud of the way you played. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Trainer Pat