Jan 08, 2012 | John Barr | 762 views
What A Feeling
Written by Lori Spoltore
The experience of participating in the International Silver Stick AE Finals was bar none as three New Hamburg Huskies hockey teams could tell you. New Hamburg would be very pleased by the effort put forth by our Atom, PeeWee and Bantam AE teams this past weekend, and how they represented our community with pride. Congratulations to all players, coaches, staff and families on an excellent effort. The Atom AE team had an extremely successful weekend in Pelham, though lost out in the quarter final round to a tough team from New Jersey.
In round robin play, the Home Hardware Atom Huskies had two wins and two losses. Tournament play began early Thursday with a win over a team from Mitchell, 4-0. Goal scorers included Jake Schweitzer, Aidan Voisin, Sam Herrle and Charlie Slessor. The defensive play of Scott Carey and Adam Barr was outstanding. In the next game of the tournament, the Huskies saw a less experienced team from Midland, Michigan who had suffered an illness on their team and lacked their goalie. Scoring was endless from the Huskies and many players contributed to the array of points, including hat tricks to Brandon Ropp, Herrle, Voisin and Slessor. Thursday night was the official Silver Stick pin trading celebration which included all players in the tournament with over 70 teams. Team pins were traded, and cow bells handed to the players to show their enthusiasm for the event. What an amazing opportunity our Huskies had with this event demonstrating fair trade, good sportmanship, and love for the game of hockey.
In game three, New Hamburg faced their toughest competition playing the Waterloo Ice Wolves, a MD team from the A division. The Huskies played outstanding, and Max Evans stood on his head in net making tremendous saves against the hard-shooting Waterloo team. The score was 5-0, but many spectators would argue that this was the best the Atom AE team had ever played. The Huskies couldn't get a break as crossbars and posts were hit, and they had many scoring opportunities. Accurate passes and team play from Herrle, Zachary Hart, Corson Myers, and Jack Weiler. In game four, the Huskies came up short again losing 1-0 to the Naperville Sabres from Illinois. The game was extremely fast-paced with even ice distribution and Tyler Jackman was super in net. The highlight of the game would be when Tyler saved a penalty shot, after the puck was declared covered in the Husky crease. This was a nail biting point in the game, and Jackman came through. Also a first for many fans was the ref's skate blade breaking in half during the game. Noah Walmsley, the birthday boy, had a terrific game, with great back checking. Luke Timmons, Logan Kleine and Ryan Hillar were all very tough at the blue-line on defence.
In division B quarter finals, the Red Bank Generals from New Jersey knocked the Huskies out of contention with a score of 2-1. Schweitzer was the solo goal scorer for the Huskies, and played amazingly with an ankle injury from a previous game. Joey Entz was awesome on defence, never giving up on the puck and pushing many scorers out of the scoring zone. The hustle and determination of the Atom AE team throughout the entire tournament was impressive, and fans were not disappointed. The Huskies now prepare to take on Tilsonburg in OMHA playdowns. Games will commence next week. Go HUSKIES!