Hardwork, determination, and much improved positional play was the recipe for another successful weekend for the Tykes at the Toronto Cup.
We finished the round robin 2-0-1, after a 5-2 win against Pro-Hockey East from Kingston, and a 12-2 win over Personal Best Aces from Hamilton. Our final round robin game was against Pro Hockey Digioia from Toronto. This would turn out to be a preview of the final game. After being down 3-1 after the first period the kids were determined to fight back, scoring 3 unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead half way through the third period. DiGioia would score 1 as well in the third leaving the game tied at 4. Tied with DiGioia after the round robin we ended up second because of goals for and against percentage.
The semi-final was a rematch against Pro-Hockey East. After being up 3-1 two minutes into the second period we lost focus and were tied at 3 going into the third. In the third period the Sharks would attack, scoring 5 goals in a span of 7 minutes to come away with an 8-3 win, and a trip to the gold medal game.
In the gold medal game, we once again got down 3-1 in the first period. The Sharks continued to work hard and fought back to make the score 4-3 with 9 minutes to go. Both teams continued to exchange chances down the stretch, but we just couldn't get the tying goal in this one. After a C final win (5th place) in our opening tournament it was difficult for these talented kids to understand how much they had improved in 3 short weeks of spring hockey, and how proud we were of them to win Silver. Congratulations and great job team!
For detailed stats see the Toronto Cup link. Next up is the Pro-tips tournament in London May 20-22, schedule to be posted soon.