Plattsville Tournament
Submitted By jjohnston on Sun 03 18, 12
Our shorthanded Atom AE Stars went to Plattsville Friday for a one day tournament. We were missing four players on vacation, and one due to that rotten flu that has been going around, so there was a lot of ice time to be had by all the boys, and I'm sure they were all exhausted heading home with a bronze medal around their necks.
We started the day bright and early against the hosts at 8:00 am. The boys played a very good game and had a 1-0 lead in the third when Mile Ostojic made another Bobby Orr end to end rush to put us on the board. Unfortunately we gave up 2 later in the period to end up on the wrong side of a 2-1 score. This was a very good team, and for getting up at 5:30, we held our own. Next we went to the shootout contest, and won 6 to 4. Both teams had 15 shots, and Markus Thompson was terrific in net only allowing 4. Alex Burgess showed off his slick hands scoring twice, Rhett Devries who was playing out for us showed no rust when he roofed one, Carter Stephens, Coleton Robison-Sareh, and I think Mile Ostojic got the other. If I'm wrong and left somebody out I apologize. Tyler Johnston was voted player of the game by the other team for his strong play on defence, as he was also forced to play out of position as we only had three natural Dmen for the day.
We had a five hour break before our second game and it proved to be fatal. Blyth only had eight skaters, and as it turned out, that was more than we had in this one. We lost 7-3 in what can only be described as a...... I'll let you fill in the blank. Tyler continued his strong play as he netted all 3 for his first hat-trick of the year. Alex, Jackson Lees, and Liam Armstrong, who got player of the game honours, played well but the rest of the team just had no energy at all, and we left poor Markus hanging out to dry.
The loss put us in the bronze medal game just one hour later against a familiar foe in West Lorne who was coming off an 8-2 loss to Plattsville. After our performance in game 2, my hopes were not very high that we would win the bronze, but the boys bounced back and won 2-0. That may have been Markus' last game for us as he is going on vacation, and will miss the finals against Mooretown, but he leaves on a high note with the shutout. Tyler got another when he threw the puck to the front of the net and it hit the goalie and rolled into the net. Jared Parkin netted our second when he was left alone in front of the net, and Alex Burgess who was now our fourth defenceman, made a strong play at the blueline to keep the puck in and hit Jared with the pass. Jared spun and rifled it over the keeper. Jared was named player of the game, we collected our medals and headed home.
We went to have fun, and I think we accomplished our mission. It was nice to play with no real pressure for a change, but that will not last long as we start our league finals Wednesday against Mooretown. Except for Markus, all our boys will be back in the fold, and we will need all of them at their best to beat the tough Mooretown team. Good job boys!