West Grey Tournament, News, Peewee 1, 2018-2019 (Wasaga Beach Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2018-2019 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Nov 12, 2018 | Bob Pozzebon | 327 views
West Grey Tournament
The Stars ventured off to their first tournament of the year hosted by the West Grey Minor Hockey Association at the Normandy Arena Complex in Ayton, ON.

The Stars made their way west across the mountain in an attempt to build on their recent success and experience a little team bonding.  The West Grey Tournament was a one day affair with the most important game of the day being the second one as a win ensured the the team would be given a chance to compete in a third game.  The road trip meant an hour and a half drive west and as can be expected the weather did not cooperate and the team caravan encountered the first true winter weather with a few inches of snow on the ground and some slippery roads along the way and several inches and blowing snow on their return later in the day.  Although the travel presented some challenges the Stars made the trip worth while in the end.

The first game of the day pitted the Stars against the Waterloo Black team and the game was well worth the price of of the $5 gate fee.  As can be expected, after an early morning wake up and drive, the Stars came out of the gate a little flat footed and lacking urgency and it showed on the scoreboard with the Stars down 2 - 0 at the end of the first period.  The second period however went the Stars way and they showed their resiliency by battling back to take eventually tie the game 3 - 3 with goals by Matthew M, Spencer R, and Andrew G. with assists on the second goal going to Ben P and Jacob D.  During the 2nd intermission the coaching staff encouraged the team to be aggresive and battle to the whistle.  The Waterloo team was the first to strike however and it looked like they might prevail after some back and forth chances through the 3rd period but Damien D got the puck on his stick and fired home a tying goal to make the score 4 - 4 at the end of regulation.  The tournament rules called for 5 minutes of Sudden Death 5 on 5 hockey and a Shootout if necessary and in the end the Shootout was how the game was decided.  A fitting end to a very close game but it did not go in the Stars favour and so the final result was a loss for the Stars with a score of 5 -4.

The tournament environment was a chance to have a little team bonding and although a loss was a down way to start the day the true spirit of this Stars team was still to shine and the turning point might have been the fantastic pot luck lunch that was the envy of the surrounding teams and prepared the Stars to continue the battle.

The second game of the day was a do or die contest pitting the Stars against the CW team with the winner going onto the consolation final and the loser going home.  Although the Stars were the home team they were required to wear their Green road jerseys and the team was hoping to maintain their undefeated season in their Green jerseys.  As the game began the Stars seemed a little sluggish, maybe from their terrific lunch, and did not register a shot on net through the first 3 minutes of the game but goalie Revan V was up the task and the game remained scoreless.  It was then that the team had to fight off a penalty on Ben P for body checking (an event that was foreseen among the coaching staff who could see Ben get up and skate right for the puck carrier along the boards).  The referee was right in the call but it seemed to spark the Stars and after fighting off the penalty they started to have a few chances themselves but the game remained scoreless through the first period.  The second period is when the line of Ben, Spencer R and Jacob D started to click and they took the team on their shoulders.  The first goal of the game was scored by Ben with an assist going to Jacob and then that was followed up by a goal from Spencer with an assist going to Ben and although the CW did notch a goal the Stars were not going to be denied.  The forward line of Logan T, Matthew M, Jackson R flustered the CW team with fore-checking and the defensive pairings of Landon L and Chyna S along with Andrew G and Emma P held up their end of the bargain for the remainder of the game and that combined with another goal each from Spencer and Ben resulted in a final score of 4-1 in favour of the Stars and they were off to the consolation final.

The Consolation Final saw the Stars take on the team from Huron Bruce.  Although the game was close in the first few minutes and the Huron Bruce team did score first you could tell the Stars were destined to come out victorious and it was obvious based on the Stars first goal of the game.  The first goal for the Stars was a special one and the whole team and parents recognized it with applause as Jayden V scored his first career goal by jumping on a rebound in front of the net and swiping the puck under a sprawling goaltender with assists going to Ben and Chyna.  The coaching staff gathered up the puck and presented to Jayden after the game.  The Stars took the first goal as a sign and stepped up their efforts to ensure Jayden was not just celebrating by himself but the team would celebrate as a group with a win.  Spencer followed up with another goal for the Stars to give them a 2-1 lead after one period.  The team kept being aggressive through the 2nd period and even though the score remained the same the Stars were still confident the result would go in their favour.  The third period represented the teams 9th period of hockey for the day, not including the extra overtime and shootout and so the coaching staff made it a point of emphasis for the team to dig a little deeper then they had all season and rely on their breakout and puck pressure to secure the victory and the Stars didn't disappoint.  With a flourish to begin the period Ben put the Stars up 3-1 with goal assisted by Jacob and even though the Huron team scored a goal to bring the score to 3-2 the Stars responded by finishing off the game with three more unanswered goals by Zij, Spencer, and Matthew with an assist by Chyna on the first goal.  The final score was 6 -2 in favour of the Stars and upon the final buzzer the team piled on their goalie and eventually lined up to accept their trophy with Ben selected as player of the game by the referees.

Congrats WASAGA BEACH PEEWEE #1.

GO STARS GO!!!


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