Submitted by Jason Baier - Head Coach.... The Stanley Cup playoffs are not the only hockey games recently to keep everyone on the edge of their seats; just ask the parents, staff & fans of our 1999 Ice Sharks. In capturing the Northshore Challenge Cup in dramatic fashion, this excellent group of young talented hockey players finished their successful spring season in fine form!
Our tournament journey started against, no other then our “friends” from Regional Express Blue, marking the 3rd time in 3 tournaments that our hockey club had faced this rival organization. To increase the intensity and challenge with this match up, Regional Blue had picked up some “Regional Gold” hitchhikers on the way to London, ON in hopes of gaining victory. In sports, the good teams & players find a way to be successful even when they don’t have their “A” game……we were an example of this, pulling out a gritty 3-2 victory to begin our tournament.
Game 2 of our tournament was played minutes later vs. Northshore Black, a very strong team that we had a feeling would be the “team to beat” in order for us to capture this tournament. This game went back in forth just as expected……both teams earning 3 goal leads, only to see the opposition battle back to tie the game. The effort put forth by our hockey club was awesome…..were we tired, you bet…did we give up….never……scoring the winner with 26 seconds left, what a great win boys 5-4! Now on to Saturday and a battle with the “EDGE”. Our team had recently been victorious over the EDGE, yet we knew they would be out for revenge as we stressed a complete game effort and that is exactly what our team provided in a 7-4 win! Next up, 2 matches with TPH…..and how the schedule worked out, they represented our final round robin game and our semi-final game. In both matches we dominated play for the most part, resulting in 8-1 and 9-1 victories respectively. This wasn’t about the talent level of TPH, but rather how well and consistent our hockey club played; displaying great TEAM play in both games…..job well done everyone!
On to the final…..”A Heavyweight Tilt” for sure…..this saw us up against Northshore Black, a rematch from our 2nd round robin game for all the marbles. This game compared to the Regional Gold game we had in our previous tournament, as both teams left it on the ice. Our special teams, which had been called upon regularly during the weekend (PK especially), were again called upon to come through for us in key situations – and that they did. After falling behind early 1-0, our team earned and had built a 3-1 lead by the mid-point of the Championship Game. Not to be outdone, Northshore continued to battle –and with just over 7 minutes left they scored a PP goal just after our team had killed off a 5-3 and were within seconds of killing off the 5-4 disadvantage. As our players have learned and have displayed during our spring season, they did not get rattled, but rather geared up for the final minutes. Following the pattern we had seen during the weekend, we were sent to the penalty box on a “questionable” call with less than 5 minutes to play in the game. At this point the seats were not needed, as everyone was standing cheering our players on to find a way…..and find a way they did…..scoring a “shorty” yes a SHG for the GWG from the “Godfather” Josh Gottfried with a huge assist going to the “Rookster” Jacob Rooke. The final 4 minutes felt like 15, but the excitement, smiles and “yard sale” witnessed at the buzzer was the greatest feeling of all. This tournament victory would not have been accomplished with out the excellent and timely goaltending put forth by Brock Baier & Baily Paquette, the very strong and consistent play of our defensemen Landry, Denny, Kraemer, Reading, Jackson and Derrough and the outstanding play and effort from our forward group; Kuno, Hertel, Thibeault, Rops, Gottfried, Yundt, Stockie, Deelstra and Rooke!
Congrats to all the players for putting forth an outstanding effort all weekend and during our Spring Season. Parents, you should be very proud – the staff sure is. The Staff again would like to thank all the players and their families for their commitment to our 1999 Ice Shark Hockey program. We wish everyone a safe and wonderful summer!