Minor Atom Jr. Stars bring home the Motown Cup!!
The Minor Atom team spent the weekend in Novi, Michigan participating in and winning the Hockey Time Productions Tournament. The weekend was full of great hockey with the boys going undefeated in the round robin and ultimately defeating the hometown Lansing Spartans in a tight 4-3 victory.
Game One overview:
On Friday, November 25, the Lansing Spartans didn’t know what hit them. The Minor Atom Jr. Stars played an excellent game of passing and shooting. They played hard through 3 periods defeating the Spartans 4-0. Ethan Miron opened up the flood gates with the first and winning goal. Ethan also buried the puck for the last goal with help from defenseman Colton Wiacek and winger Brennan Bradley. Keavan Milmine buried the two other goals with the help of Brennen Smith’s stick handling and Colton Wiacek’s rocket shot. Jack Pigram, Kyle Wiebe and Ethan Georgijev were a force to be reckoned with, getting to the net and forcing the goalie to save their shots.
Goalie Ryan Bonter got his first shut out of the tournie preventing the Spartans from getting on the board, blocking every shot that came his way. Defenseman Josh Niles made his presence known whenever the forwards attempted a rush. Mike Roth and Evan Clarke took the Spartans to the boards and turned the puck away from our blue line.
Game Two overview:
Game two saw a very different Stars team. With a sleepy start the boys were down by three goals after the first period to the Innisfil Hawks. With eyes wide open and focus on getting back in this game, the boys came out hard in the second period. Starting the goal starting engines was James Martin with an end to end breakaway. James skated the puck through the Innisfil forwards and defenseman and lifted a blistering shot just below the cross bar to get the Stars on the score board. Two minutes later, Ethan Miron sent a pass out from the corner to Hunter Nurse in the slot to slip in the second goal through the five hole. Before the end of the second period the game was all tied up after Keavan Milmine used some fancy stick work and his line mate Jayce Smith’s help to score again.
The game came down to the third period with both teams battling hard for the win. The “Hockey Gods” were not on our side today turning away chance after chance after chance. Although all the forward lines were passing and shooting, the puck eluded the goal. Defensemen Jeffery Carr , Colton Wiacek, Evan Clarke, Mike Roth, James Martin and Josh Niles did everything they could to stop any scoring chances. They cleared the puck as soon as it entered our zone and tied up the Innisfil forwards. When an Innisfil forward let a rocket of a shot go the boys and the fans thought the game was over but goalie Maclane Stringle said “No Way!” and made an awesome glove save and left the game at a tie.
Game Three overview:
After a good nights sleep, the boys came out to win against the Dundas Blues. This proved to be a very physical game with over 24 minutes of penalties between the two teams. The Jr. Stars came out on top though with a 6-0 win over the Blues. Scoring goals for the Stars in order were Hunter Nurse with two goals, Keavan Milmine with two goals and an assist, James Martin with a goal, Brennen Smith with a goal and two assists and earning assists were Ethan Miron, Brennan Bradley, Jeffery Carr, Jayce Smith, Mike Roth and Colton Wiacek. The secret to our success in this game was getting the rebounds, with many of the goals being scored with effective rebounding.The line of Kyle Wiebe, Jack Pigram and Ethan Georgijev produced lots of scoring opportunities, driving hard to the net only to be denied by the Blues goalie. The game ended with the Stars feeling confident and ready to battle for the cup. Within minutes we knew that we would face the hometown team of the Lansing Spartans. Although we had won our first meeting we knew the game would take everything we had to win and take home the trophy. We were not mistaken.
The game started with the Spartans coming on strong, they were rewarded with the first goal of the game. Three minutes later the Stars were also rewarded with hard work and the game was tied. Jayce Smith was in perfect position to put the rebound shot from Brennen Smith into the net. The second period seemed to last forever, with the only goal being scored in the last 4 minutes by the Spartans.
The third period started with a bang, the Stars came out strong and scored the first goal at 10:51 to tie up the game. Evan Clarke was rewarded for his determination to keep the puck in their end with his first goal of the tournament. Two and a half minutes later the Stars went into the lead after Ethan Miron and Hunter Nurse teamed up for another goal. The fans were on the edge their seats, the score was 3-2 for the Stars with 5:44 left in the third when the Spartans found the top corner of the net tying the game again. Just when we thought the game was going to overtime, Ethan Miron with the help of Jack Pigram and Hunter Nurse buried the puck one more time with 1:20 left in the game. The Spartans through everything they had at the boys but they stood strong and came out Victorious!!
Way to Go Stars, you worked hard and deserved to win the Championship! Great team work can’t be beat!! Congratulations Boys!
GO STARS!!!!!