What a great weekend for the New Hamburg Atom LL3 Lions!
It all started with a hard fought battle in a league game
against Paris on Saturday morning.
After 2 tough losses in a row, the boys came out and played an inspired game at
both ends of the ice. They created scoring opportunities with some great
passing, broke up odd man rushes with excellent effort on the back check,
cleared pucks out from in front of their own net and leaned on their whirling
dervish of a goaltender when all else failed! All their hard work and their
ability to gel as a team during their first home game of the season helped them
come away with a 4-1 win!
After the game, the team was able to look forward to Sunday and the opportunity they were given to participate in Hockey Day in Rangers Nation. The boys (as well as the parents and coaches!) went to bed with visions of Rangers skating in their heads! They all woke up with excitement and anticipation in the morning and arrived at the Aud with a bounce in their step. All of their anticipation still didn’t live up to what they actually got to experience. Right from the first moment when their dressing room door opened and they saw their names above their benches they all had eyes as big as saucers! The room quickly filled with gleeful chatter as the boys all took in the atmosphere and shared every new excitement with their team mates and parents.
The next new highlight of the day came as their names were announced and they stepped on to the Rangers ice! The sound of their official announcement followed by the cheers from the audience definitely put a little extra boost in their energy level. After the Canadian anthem was played, we probably could have pulled all the kids back into the dressing room and given them their gift bags and they likely would have been able to say this was a unique and fun experience… Thankfully there was still more to come as the officials dropped the puck for the start of the game between the Huskies and Kitchener AtoMc Grey.
In an epic duel, the two teams traded goals the entire game. Both teams played hard and fought for every inch of ice to try and get, as well as stop, scoring chances! If it weren’t for the great goaltending and tough defence played by both teams, both sets of high flying forwards would have piled on goals. With the cheers from the crowd for every stellar save or defensive play and after the announcement of every goal and assist, there was an abundant amount of energy being transferred from the stands down to the bench and encouraging the boys on. The Kitchener team did come away with a one goal victory but on this day, both teams were definitely winners!
With many thanks to the Rangers organization, we can definitely say the Huskies team came away with memories that will last a lifetime!