The West London KnightHawks, Minor Atom #13, served notice to the hockey world that they are a team to be reckoned with, competing hard against mixed major and minor atom teams from Dorchester and Tillsonburg in this weekend's Dorechester Jake Marczenko Tournament and advancing to the semifinals. While the team's Cinderalla run fell short with a 4-1 loss this morning to their third opponent from Dorchester of the weekend, the KnightHawks proved they could play, literally, with the big boys.
The weekend started well on Friday at 12:30, as minus assistant Coach Geoff Read who was busily meeting with university students and marking their mostly terrible essays, the KnightHawks faced off against a physically imposing team from Tillsonburg. Despite this, the KnightHawks followed the coaching staff's game plan to a tee, and played with plenty of mustard, hemming the Tillsonburgers in their own end and eating them up with relish. The star and player of the game was Kaelan Walsh, who played at centre and was strong at both ends of the ice, earning an assist on a nice goal by Owen Askew. James Nielsen also distinguished himself with a hat-trick and Kayden Keating, in net, while not busy, earned praise for shutting out the much larger team of Tillsonburgers. Jack Peterkin also made the highlight reel but for a play he'd no doubt like to have back. Peterkin was alone in front of the net when the puck came to him. With all kinds of time and the goalie caught wildly out of position, Peterkin confidently rifled the puck about a foot wide of the yawning cage.
With their first victory of the weekend under their belts the KnightHawks were guilty of celebrating a little too hard. Keating, in particular, devoured a delectable T-Bone steak while his teammates gorged themselves on greasy food and the bubbly. The result was a pretty lacklustre effort in the afternnoon against Dorchester #2, a team against whom the KnightHawks were favoured. As the game slipped away from them, the team's frustration was evident in that two KnightHawks took their first penalties of the season. First up was Anderson Watt who hauled down a Dorchester forward in the second period and wound up in the box for two minutes. And then came the game's defining moment in the third, when Greg "The Impaler" Nicolis claimed his victim, viciously hacking down one of the tall trees who played forward for the opposition and sitting out for a deuce as a result.
Despite their generally poor play, there were some highlights on the afternoon, as player of the game Nielsen came back to break up several Dorchester rushes and Connor Devlin absolutely robbed one Dorchester forward of a breakaway opportunity with a hard backcheck. In net, Walsh allowed four goals, although he couldn't be faulted on most of them. The bottom line is that you don't win very often when your forwards don't produce a single goal, as the KnightHawks' lone marker came off the stick of defender Aiden Hayes with a seeing eye shot from high in the slot.
Things didn't look promising going into the third game of the weekend Saturday afternoon, with the KnightHawks coming off one of their weakest efforts of the season. Moreover, the KnightHawks were to be without two-sport threat and team enforcer Zoe Read, who was committed to playing for her soccer team at the same time. Assistant Coach D'Wayne Price fretted that minus "Knuckles" Read Dorchester might take some liberties with the KnightHawks' skilled players and opined that the rest of the team would have to step up their physical play in her absence.
And indeed they did, as the KnightHawks bounced back and showed their mettle in what may have been their finest effort of the season thus far against the best of the three Dorchester teams they faced on the weekend. Paul Steele roughed up some Dorchester players in the corners and recorded an assist and Sam Schafer showed some edge as well with his persistent bumping and grinding. Gritty forward Troy Price, notably, thrived in this physical environment, setting up two goals to earn his first two assists of the tournament, including the game winner off a nice rush and pass. Peterkin redeemed himself for his big miss in game #1, potting the first and last goals of the game and Devlin, who had a strong weekend on the forecheck, got two assists with his digging in the corners. Devlin also got a goal when he made a pretty tip on a shot from pointman Brandon Miles. And Askew got the game winner from Price that put the KnightHawks ahead for good.
But as is often the case when a team beats a favoured opponent, the player of the game was the goaltender, Keating, who on the heals of his shutout posted an outstanding performance, including shutting down a Dorchester breakaway early in the third when the score was knotted at 2-2. It was on Keating's back that the KnightHawks rode into the semis.
This morning's semi-final was another good game against yet another team from Dorchester. The size advantage again went to the opposition as the Dorchester team featured several larger 11 year olds. But with Knuckles Read up front and Greg the Impaler on the back end the KnightHawks would not be intimidated by Dorchester's physical style of play.
The game started poorly when Dorchester managed to penetrate the KnightHawks' zone and hem them in for the first 2-3 shifts of the game. Dorchester was rewarded for this in the game's fourth minute when they scored to get out to an early lead. But the KnightHawks kept working and carried much of the player in the middle portion of the game, using their heavy forecheck to generate turnovers. Indeed, it was on such a workmanlike effort that they finally broke through and tied the game up in the second as Nielsen crashed the net and put a rebound of a Keating shot behind the keeper. Unfortunately, despite several glorious chances - including two separate occasions when the puck got through the Dorchester goalie and sat in the crease - Nielsen's marker was to be the KnightHawks' last. Read in particular saw several shots miss their mark from in close.
In the third period the KnightHawks lost some of their momentum and Walsh, back between the pipes for game #4, turned in his best performance in net of the season, stopping several breakaways and sliding across his crease in the butterfly to rob the Dorchester snipers. But eventually they got a couple by him and then Peterkin took a slashing penalty near the end of the game, which sunk the KnightHawks' chances of a comeback, especially since Dorchester scored less than ten seconds into their power play.
Still, as Coach Walsh noted in his post-game remarks, the KnightHawks could hold their heads high after this defeat, having played very well in 3 of 4 games at the tournament and competed evenly at least with teams whose rosters are peppered with older players. To a man (and woman) the KnightHawks played well, and gave a good account of themselves, setting the stage for success at their February away tournament in Windsor.
Go KnightHawks go!
