Apr 02, 2020 | smckay | 545 views
How the season would have ended....
We had them right where we wanted... if not for COVID-19, I'm pretty sure this is how it would have went for Minor Peewee 55...
Semi-Final vs North 25
A
close 3-1 win. We got off to a fast start as our starting forwards...
... (Brick, Owen, Carter L) went 110% right from puck drop and scored on the first shift. A perfect break-out from Damian to Brick to Carter L got us out of our zone. Brick got the pass back and played a dump and chase. Carter L raced to the puck and out-battled 2 Nationals to make a tape-to-tape pass to Owen who had gone straight to the net and beat the goalie 5-hole! That cele by Owen was epic!North roared back with tons of pressure... our defense stepped up and Jacob and James both had 2 key blocked shots and Brandon had the most amazing glove save on a shot we all thought was going bar down. The score was 1-0 after the first.A scoreless (and stressful) second period saw lots of chances for both teams. Kade got robbed twice by the North goalie on what looked like sure goals. Harry swept a puck off our goal line after it got by Brandon near the end of the second... North was already celebrating as they thought it was in and their coach went crazy arguing with the refs!The start of the third saw us take our foot off the gas and North had a great tic-tac-toe passing play to score on us and tie it up 1-1. Feeling a bit back on our heels, North had another amazing chance on a near breakaway if it hadn't been for the back-checking speed of Will who broke up the play. That play woke us up and our defense shut down North every time they got in our zone. With about 4 minutes left in the third, off a shot block by Jackson, Carter J picked up the loose puck and rushed it up the ice... he went wide around the defense and drove towards the net for a great wrist shot. The goalie made the save but gave up a rebound that ended up on Randy's stick who buried it to put us up 2-1. With 1:30 left North pulled their goalie and turned up the pressure... they stacked their lines and put all their best players on. In one sequence, just after Brandon had lost his stick, they got off a hard shot from the point and had two rebound chances... Brandon made an amazing pad save sliding across the crease on the 2nd to keep us up 2-1. We finally got it out of our zone and across centre... we missed the empty net but Kade for-checked and was a 1-man wrecking crew and pinned North in their zone for about 30 seconds! With all this pressure, North coughed up the puck at their blue line,Tate scooped it up and found the back of the empty net!
What an amazing win!
2020 Minor Peewee Championship Game West London Hawks 55 @ North London 15
Pre-game
It was a rainy morning for hockey, but the West London Hawks were ready. As usual, Owen arrived early, and Michelle got the music pumping. Shelly had the jerseys hung up all around the locker room. One by one, the team arrived to see the Alzheimer’s donation bucket next to the locker room and the roster posted on the door. With the arrival of every player, Randy got distracted from getting ready, making sure to give everyone his usual enthusiastic greeting. Coach Dave J got the water bottles filled. Coach Brandon made the rounds with the clipboard, going over last-minute instructions and reviewing positioning. Coach Greg made the rounds tying skates. Dave C gave Brandon a last-minute review of the skills he had been working on the past week. Brad J gave an enthusiastic “Have a good game Hank! Good luck coaches and go kick some a** boys!” as he left the locker room. Then he asked if he was allowed to say that. Manager Greg, looking a bit nervous, lingered around the locker room hoping to catch a bit of the pre-game speech. 10 minutes before game-time, Coach Scott called all the boys into the locker room. Helmet stickers were given to all the players for a great team effort last game. Scott gave his usual work hard, do the best you can do at what you do best, and work as a team speech. Dave J and Greg K added a few key strategic points. Coach Brandon gave an impassioned message about having worked too hard all season to let this opportunity slip by. Startling the boys with an “ARE YOU READY?!”, Brandon gathered the boys, they put their hands in, and Owen and Randy counted us into the loudest “GO HAWKS GO!” the coaches had ever heard. With “Hey Baby” pumping, the boys hit the ice for warm-ups.
First Period
North London was ready to go. They had an easy win against the Bandits yesterday. Having beat us in the playoff round robin, they expected to beat us a third time this season. We came out a bit flat. We were scrambling around our own end and having trouble getting out of our zone. We were trying to skate it out of our zone and not running the break-out. If not for Brandon standing on his head making saves, we could have been down 5-0. Owen started banging his stick on the boards and got everyone chanting “Lets go Hawks, lets go!” Kade made a heart-felt plea on the bench for everyone to work hard – and it worked. We turned up the pressure… Carter L and Tate were forcing turnovers in the neutral zone, Jackson was beating North into the corners for the puck, and Jacob and Harry were tying up shooters in front of our net. On offense we started to get some momentum… James and Carter J were firing bullets from the blue line. Damian and Will were each like a wall holding the puck in the North zone. On one play, it seemed for sure North was going to get the puck dumped out of their zone but Damian somehow got to the puck, dumped it into the corner where Brick out-battled the North defender to make a great pass out front to Randy. The North goalie stoned Randy and the game was still 0-0. Near the end of the period, off a blocked shot by a North player, the puck bounced out of the zone and they got a breakaway… Will raced on the back-check with Carter L close behind. Despite trying to lift the North player’s stick, he got off a great shot and scored top corner. We were down 1-0 after the first.
Second Period
Invigorated by their goal at the end of the first, North came out flying to start the second and scored another goal within the first 2 minutes. The Hawks weren’t about to give up though. They remembered they had been down and made comebacks before. The coaches encouraged the kids to keep working hard every shift. Half-way through the period Randy scooped up the puck in our end. Despite the calls to “PASS!”, he barreled up the ice through 3 North defenders. Just after he crossed the North blue line, he got hauled down and North got a hooking penalty. Coach Dave made a quick change of the forwards and put Kade and Tate out on the wings with Carter L at center. Right off the face off, Carter L got the puck back to Tate at the top of the circle. He made a great shot through traffic, but somehow the goalie got his blocker on it - but he couldn’t control the rebound. Kade had driven to the net, jumped on the puck and buried it in the back of the net for a power play goal! North responded with a flurry of offense. Two almost break-aways that needed some amazing back-checking by Carter J, Carter L, Kade and James to break-up. Brandon was laser-focused seeing the puck and was controlling rebounds and freezing the puck to help the team make line changes. Brick and Jackson were focused on their jobs, each blocking a shot from the North point off faceoffs. In one sequence, after being pinned and unable to change for almost 2 minutes, Damian dug a puck out of the corner, got it to Owen at the hash mark and he dumped it out of the zone down the ice so we could get fresh legs back on. With about 1-minute left in the period, after a North dump into our zone, Harry made a great play reversing the puck behind our net to start a breakout. Brick got the pass on the wing and fed Carter L who was looping in the middle of the ice. With some room to skate, he turned on the jets and blew past the North defense… catching the goalie a bit by surprise, Carter L went top corner and scored! We were tied 2-2 heading to the third.
Third Period
On an emotional high from the tying the game, we came out strong to start the third. Everyone was clicking and doing their jobs… Owen had a great sequence making a breakout pass to Randy and another great dump-in after crossing the centre line. Jacob was holding the blue line and made a couple great decisions to pinch in and keep the pressure on North. Damian was hustling back and intercepted a North pass that was almost sure to spring a break-away. On offence, the line of Tate, Kade, and Jackson was on fire… Tate had an amazing lead pass to Kade who was streaking up the ice. Kade crossed the blue line and took the puck wide. He played a delay with a spin-o-rama move to shake a defender and found Jackson driving to the net who made a great shot and scored glove side on the North goalie. We were up 3-2! There was no quit in North. They started to shorten their bench, stacking their lines. They turned up the pressure. Our defense stepped up. Harry and Carter J controlled the front of our net. Will and James were amazing battling for the puck in the corners. Jacob and Damian were getting to all the loose pucks. With 2 minutes left, North pulled their goalie. The 6 on 5 pressure was intense. Kade, Jackson and Brick all had shot blocks. Brandon made some amazing saves, including one were he got his paddle down to cover the open side of the net after a great pass by North. In one sequence there were about three rebounds and Brandon finally covered the puck as North hacked away at his glove. Owen stepped in to protect his goalie and pushed back at the North player. There was 20 seconds left in the game and the face off was in our end. North won the face off and it came back to the point. They got off a hard shot, about waist-high… Brandon was screened, and our defenders couldn’t get in front of the shot. The puck hit the back of the net and the game was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation.
Overtime
The playoff format was a 10 minute 3-on-3 and a shot-out to follow if still tied. Overtime was intense – Carter J, Randy and Kade all had great scoring chances. Brandon made saves on 3 break-aways. The whole team played their hearts out on offense and defense during OT. After 10 minutes, the score was still tied 3-3. We went to the shoot-out.
The coaches gathered the players to try to settle them down. Coach Greg gave Brandon some water and some words of encouragement. Coach Scott went over the order of the shooters. Each team got 3 shooters and if still tied, it went to a sudden victory format. We had to shoot first. Our first shooter skated out to centre ice. He took the puck and skated towards the North goalie… with a fake to the backhand and then bringing it back to the forehand, a wrist shot found the back of the net! North’s turn now. Brandon was ready. He tapped his stick on the posts at the referee’s signal. The North player skated in and went with a low backhand shot --- Brandon made the save with his pad! Our second shooter made a spectacular move but the puck slide wide of the net. Still 1-0 in the shoot-out. North’s second shooter went 5-hole to scored and tie it up. Our third shooter stepped out on the ice and looped around the puck. He picked it up and skated hard towards the net at the North goalie. The shot was a laser beam at the top corner for a goal! The next North player looked confident. He scooped up the puck at centre and made an amazing deke and slide the puck over the line to tie the shoot out at 2-2. We went to extra shooters. Our 4th shooter was stoned by the North goalie. North had a chance to win. Their shooter came in hard and fast towards Brandon who had come out above the crease. The shot was high and hard – glove side. Out of nowhere, Brandon got his glove up to make an amazing snag, stared down the North shooter, flipped his glove over and dropped the puck at the top of the crease! Our 5th shooter stepped on the ice. He looked nervous. The team was cheering him on. The crowd was tense and some of the parents could barely watch. The ref checked to make sure the North goalie was ready. He blew the whistle and our player took the puck. The North goalie moved to the top of the crease as the shooter skated towards him. Our shooter pulled the puck back, looking like he was going forehand with a wrist shot… a quick head fake and then sweeping the puck across to his back hand, he scored with a backhander right over the outstretched goalie pad! Now North had to score. The North coach gave their shooter some last-minute tips. Our team was cheering Brandon on. Except for John, the client from the Alzheimer Society, most of our fans could barely watch. The North shooter came in at Brandon. Brandon was focused on the puck. The shooter faked left and Brandon came across the crease. The shooter went back to the right and had a wide-open top corner. Brandon made a great recovery getting back across the crease and the shooter let the shot go…. DING! It went off the post and out!! WEST LONDON WINS!!!
The kids rushed onto the ice, throwing gloves and sticks in the air and piling on Brandon! What a great end to a great season! West London Hawks #55 – minor peewee champs for 2020!