The Major
Atom Jr. Stars are the 2018 Boston Pizza Cup champions!!
The Jr. Stars built upon a strong showing in the Warriors Early Bird Tournament in September, a tournament in which they came away with a silver medal, by winning the Boston Pizza Cup tournament for the 2nd year in a row.
The boys came out strong on Friday with a couple of 2-0 wins versus the Woodstock Jr Navy Vets and the Southpoint Capitals. Strong team defense, and stellar goaltending in both games allowed the Jr. Stars to get out to a strong start to the weekend.
Saturday morning, the Jr. Stars ran up against a gritty Toronto Avalanche team who were hungry, and dropped a tough 2-1 game, with the winning goal coming in the final minutes of the third period.
With a 2 and 1 record, the Jr. Stars found themselves in a quarterfinal matchup with the Southpoint Capitals. The offence broke out against the Capitals, with the Jr. Stars securing a convincing 8-1 decision.
A quarterfinal win set up a rematch in the semi final against the Toronto Avalanche on Sunday morning. Much like the first meeting, the game was close for most of the game. However the Jr. Stars broke out in the third period, and outlasted the Avalanche in a 4-1 final.
The semi final win put the Jr. Stars into the final against a very strong Owen Sound Jr. Attack. The Jr. Stars jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, controlling the play for most of the period. The Jr. Attack battled back with 4 straight goals to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third period, and appeared to be ready to ruin the weekend for the hometown crowd. But the Jr. Stars weren’t done. They dug deep and battled back in the third to tie the game at 4. After giving up the go ahead goal with just over 6 minutes to play, some heads up passing allowed the Jr. Stars to tie the game once again with a little more than 2 minutes to go. The game appeared headed to overtime, when the Jr. Stars broke free in the final minute and scored the winning goal with just 24 seconds to play.
The weekend was filled with good team defence, timely scoring, and excellent goaltending. The coaching staff is extremely proud of how the boys played, how they didn’t give up, and kept fighting. The team realized that if they continue to work hard and play together, anything is possible.
Great weekend boys!! Keep up the hard work!!