Mar 16, 2013 | Rod Lichti | 1182 views
44th Annual Plattsville Little Brave Tournament Champs!
As the saying goes, “offence wins you games, but defence wins you championships!” The New Hamburg Home Hardware Novice LL1 team showed the truth in that statement as they skated to three shut-out victories on March 12th to capture the Plattsville Little Brave Tournament Championship!
In game number one the boys took on the host team, the Plattsville Rage. With one goal in the first period, two in the second and three in the third, LL1 started the tournament with a convincing 6-0 win. Leading the way on the score sheet were Ethan Lichti with 3 goals and Sam Wildfong with 2 goals. Cohen Christener, who was playing for LL1 in place of several players who were either vacationing or away sick, chipped in with a goal as well after a beautiful end to end rush. Kohen Patten and Ryan Yost both added assists in the game.
In game two, LL1 faced a very tough team from Waterford. For most of the game, Waterford held the territorial advantage as they peppered goaltender Deklan Jermol with shot after shot. But the goalie was unfazed by the relentless attack and would not let the Waterford team put one past the goal line. The strong defence for LL1 also stood out in this game as Carson Fairhall defended numerous one on one rushes and kept the attackers to the outside. Shaun Zwosta kept the front of the net clear and blocked about a dozen shots throughout the game as well. And Christener’s magic stick was constantly poke-checking the puck off the stick of the Waterford forwards in the neutral zone before they could gain the offensive blue line. Half way through the second period, Caden Eichler, who was also on loan to LL1 for the tournament, chipped a puck past the defence at his own blue line and skated past him to pick up the puck and head for the net on a breakaway. Eichler made no mistake as he roofed the puck into the top corner to give his team a 1-0 lead. After that, Jermol did the rest as he turned in a 35 save performance for the shutout victory which sent his team to the ‘A’ Final.
In the championship game, LL1 faced a familiar foe in New Hamburg LL4. Eichler again opened the scoring for his team early in the first period, and Wildfong added to that lead just before the buzzer. In the second period, great team defence and spectacular saves by Jermol maintained the two goal lead before Lichti back-handed one over the LL4 goalie after a goal mouth scramble to give the LL1 team a 3 goal lead. In the third period, strong fore-checking by Yost and Patten, and neutral zone shut down defence by Logan McDonnell kept their opponents from getting on the score sheet. Late in the frame, Wildfong squashed any hopes of a comeback by LL4 when he rifled home his second of the game to seal the 4-0 win.
It was an exciting day of hockey and all of the coaches and parents are very proud of how well the boys played and how they represented their New Hamburg Husky pride.