Congratulations goes out to the boys for their hard effort
this weekend at the Pittsburgh Winter Classic!!
Brad said it best, “
The hard work the boys have been putting
in through dryland, practice and the games are starting to pay off.”
The boys opened the tournament with a solid 5-0 win over the
host, Pittsburgh Predators. They followed up with an early Saturday morning 7-1
win against the Allegheny Badgers. The afternoon game was against the Peterborough
Petes. We knew this game was going to be a close hard-fought game, as the
winner would advance to the Championship game on Sunday. The boys rose to the
challenge and won by a score of 3-2.
The Championship game was an epic showdown between two undefeated teams. Both Stoney Creek and us were 3-0 in round robin play. Our boys started out strong by scoring the game’s first goal. Stoney Creek was able to tie up the score before the end of 1st period. We started to get into penalty trouble during the second period, which allowed the speedy Stoney Creek team to take a 3-1 lead after two periods of play. Our boys new they were still in the game and began to settle down in the third period. They played their best period of the season by winning the battles, skating hard, making all the right choices and maintaining puck possession in the offensive zone for majority of the period. We scored our second goal and continued applying the offensive pressure. With less than 2 minutes to play, we called our time out and decided to pull our goalie for the extra attacker. It was apparent the hockey gods we’re not on our side. We had numerous chances and even had one shot off the goal post and saw the puck slid along the entire goal line. Even though the boys came up one goal short in sending the game into overtime, they should hold their heads up high. Our boys represented Canada, Woolwich and most importantly the team with honour and integrity. Great job boys!!!!
Further to the boys playing great hockey all weekend, our team took in the Pens vs NYI game on Thursday night. We arranged to have a bus to take us to and from the game. This allowed all the players and parents to ride to the game together. It was a great night, as the Pens defeated the NYI 6-2 and Hunter made an appearance on the large scoreboard above centre ice, as he was showcasing his impressive dance moves!
On Friday we took the boys toy shopping before our first game. Our team joined up with Woolwich Community Services to sponsor 4 underprivileged families this Christmas. It was an adventure taking 15 energetic boys to Walmart. I would like to thank the parents who join us at Walmart, especially Katie for keeping us organized, and those parents/siblings who help purchase clothing at the outlet malls as well. There was no way we were bring these boys to the outlet malls!!!