Oct 26, 2015 | tmcintyre | 1304 views
SilverStick Finalist
The Country Charm Café Minor Peewee team participated in the 41st Annual Royal Canadian Legion Silverstick tournament held in Woodstock this past weekend.
The first game saw the Stars play in front of a capacity crowd against the hometown Woodstock Navy Vets. The Navy Vets would take a early lead with a quick goal in the first period. They would add to their lead early into the 2nd period sending the Stars to the dressing room for intermission being down 2-0. The Stars came out flying in the 3rd period and put 4 unanswered goals behind the Woodstock goalie. The hometown fans would go home early as the Stars would skate off with a 4-2 win.
St. Thomas would then play a strong team in the Burlington Eagles. St Thomas would be the first to bulge the twine, midway through the first period. The game was back and forth, with lots of opportunities going both ways. Solid goaltending by both goalies would see the game clock ticking down. Burlington would finally push one across the goal line with an extra attacker on and 40 seconds to go. The game was then forced into overtime. Again both teams traded scoring chances and with a few seconds remaining in OT, Burlington scored the winner. The St Thomas team didn't go away empty handed as they had gained a valuable point for a regulation tie.
The after noon match had the Oakville Rangers pitted against the Stars. The Stars did not start great and found themselves down 1-0 early into the game. St Thomas finally notch a goal to tie the contest at 1. The game would end in a tie. Overtime did not produce a victor, so off to the dreaded shootout. The Oakville Rangers had a bit more jump than the majority of Stars in this game and in the end, won the game in a shootout. The Stars retreated to the dressing room, knowing they didn't bring their best this game and likely let one slip away. Fortunately we gained another valuable point with a regulation tie. This would give the Stars 2nd place in their pool and they would face the 1st seed in the other pool in the Semi Final match.
Sunday morning brought the New Hamburg Huskies as the Stars opposition. The Stars played a very strong two periods, but found themselves down 2 -0 heading into intermission. After the flood, the Stars came out flying scoring 4 goals to lead 4-2. New Hamburg would score in the final seconds of the contest to make the final 4-3 in favour of St Thomas.
The final set up the Brantford 99ers and St Thomas Stars. The Stars started the game fast, only to have a opening shift goal declined. The intermission would come and the Stars found themselves down 1-0. As the boys discussed the situation in the dressing room, the coaches set up play for the 3rd period faceoff. The stars took the ice in the 3rd, the puck dropped at centre and a few second later the winger had scored a highlight goal to tie the game at 1. The rest of the 3rd period was very fast paced. Brantford would score two quick goals to take a 3-1 lead. St Thomas continue to generate scoring opportunities and finally found the back of the net 3-2. With time ticking down and the goalie pulled, St Thomas forced the puck at the Brantford netminder, only to have the horn sound and the game end in 3-2 defeat.
The Country Charm Café Minor Peewee Stars would have to settle for finalists this time around, but have demonstrated lots of skills and traits that make the Coaches and Parents very proud of these young hockey players.