Nov 05, 2012 | snugent | 2003 views
FINALISTS IN FT ERIE
Well we just witnessed another outstanding weekend for the Minor Atom Stars. Everyone had a great weekend and once again watched the Stars play some great hockey.
The tournament started on Friday against the Ajax Knights. The Stars outplayed and outworked Ajax en route to a 3-0 victory. There were no more games on Friday so it was off to the hotel in Niagara for the rest of the day. The kids enjoyed swimming, the hot tub and the arcade.
Saturday morning the Stars had to enter the Dragon's Den to play Leaside. The Stars took the lead early and never looked back and cruised to a 5-1 victory. The afternoon brought on the Rangers from Vaughan. This Rangers team might have been the tallest and biggest team that the Stars have played. The Stars failed to show up early and went down 3-0 before waking up and taking the play to Vaughan for the entire third period but failed to score. This game did not mean anything as both teams advanced to the semi finals.
Sunday morning, the Stars faced the host team from Fort Erie. This game was back and forth with both teams trading chances. The third period ended with the score 0-0 and for the 4th time in the last 2 weeks we were off to OT. Overtime solved nothing and the semi final needed to be decided by a shootout. The Stars prevailed 2-1 in the shootout and advanced to the finals.
The finals were a rematch against a very good team from Vaughan. The Stars were ready to go this time and took the play to the Rangers for most of the first but found themselves down 1-0. The second period was much the same and the Stars swarmed the Rangers net but were now down 2-0. The third period the Stars picked it up even more and were able to score to cut the lead to 2-1. The Stars had a rowdy and boisterous crowd supporting them but that was it and the referee seemed to be a little shy about calling penalties and some very questionable calls went without a whistle. As an FYI, it was later discovered that the officials were carded members of OWREN and were seen with bags of Meox Mix in the parking lot (long story). Anyways, the Rangers added a late goal on one of the most bizarre plays I have ever seen and it was not to be for the Stars and once again we came away just short.
The coaching staff is extremely proud with the way the boys played and gave it their all. That Vaughan team is ranked very high in Ontario and their coaches had nothing but glowing compliments for our team. I really thought we outplayed Vaughan in the final and the boys deserved a better outcome. The Stars would also like to thank our parent group as you guys are proving to be one of the loudest supporting groups around and it does make a difference and the kids do feed off of it. Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.
Cheers