Feb 02, 2013 | Rod Lichti | 427 views
Tyler Lopers Memorial Tournament---Drayton
Novice LL1 braved the cold and wintery weather on Saturday morning and headed out for "Ontario's Coldest Arena" in Drayton. Everybody made it safe and sound and eager to get on the ice!
Game 1 was against a highly touted squad from Listowel who was said to be averaging over 5 goals per game! The LL1 Huskies showed no fear as they skated hard from the first drop of the puck. Everybody wanted that FunDip ForeChecker Award! New Hamburg opened the scoring on a seeing eye wrist shot from the top of the circle by Ethan Lichti. Then the game was taken over by goaltender Jayden Cook-Reiner. With regular goalie Deklan "the wall" Jermol sunning himself on cruise ship somewhere south of New Hamburg, LL1 needed to call in some back up help from the Cook-Reiner Twins.
In game 1 Jayden made numerous heart-stopping, desperation, dive across the crease saves. He constantly thwarted the strong offensive attack from Listowel to keep the game close and eventually win himself the "Player of the Game" award. The game was eventually tied at 1 before Ethan gave his squad the lead again with a sneaky little five-hole goal. Strong defensive play from the Fab Four of Shaun 'big man' Zwosta, Zack "attack" Knorr and Twin Towers 1 and 2 Carson Fairhall and Jesse Fay. All game they cleared the front of the net, angled off the attacking forwards, and got the puck off the boards and out of the zone. Late in the third, however, Listowels' top sniper got free in the high slot and was able fire one top shelf to tie the game once again. So now into the always exciting 4 on 4 overtime! But alas, not so exciting for the Huskies as Listowel grabbbed a loose puck early into the extra period and shot it through a screen into the corner of the net to secure the win.
Though the final result was a loss, it was one of the best games of the year for the boys and everyone received the Fun Dip ForeChecker Award afterwards. Centre man Sam "the fashion show" Wildfong left the dressing room wearing his always popular yellow jeans and the Hard Hat for his nifty poke checks and strong rushes with the puck that lead to a couple of great scoring chances.
Game 2 brought another new foe to the ice for the Huskies...the Beverly Bandits. Though the Bandits came fast and furious in the first period, the Huskies held their own and kept the deficit to 1-0. The second was a much better period as Ryan 'the rhino' Yost found his legs and started rushing the puck up the right wing like a true power forward. Logan 'the ramblin man' MacDonnel was all over the ice getting in the way of the rushing Bandits and keeping them to the perimeter of the Huskies zone. And between the pipes, it was Riley's turn to shine! Post to post in the splits making kick saves, toe saves, arm save, stick saves....he kept his teammates in the game and also took home Player of the Game honours after the final buzzer.
Beverly made the score 2-0 before the line of Kohen 'the Krasher' Patten, Casey 'DJ Jazzy J' Jarosz and Ethan "moves like Jagger" Lichti went to work. Ethan started with an aggressive forecheck on the Bandits D in the offensive zone. Sensing danger, the Bandits D coughed up the puck along the boards to Kohen who was following up hard on the play. He hammered a shot from the side boards onto the net that the goalie stopped, but Casey was there to drive home the rebound and make it a one goal game. This goal sparked the Huskies, but in the end, the attack from the Bandits proved too strong and the tournament came to an end for the New Hamburg squad. Kohen took home the Hard Hat for his constant and strong puck pursuit, and every boy on the team was proud to take home a shiny medal for their strong play on the weekend.
Great job Huskies! Back to face the first place LL4 boys next week in regular season action!