Nov 28, 2016 | JJewkes | 1199 views
Wasaga Beach Silver Stick
"Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character." - T.Allan Armstrong
For some this is the biggest most prestigious tournament of the year. The opportunity to represent your center in the regional round with the winner moving on to the International Silver Stick in St. Claire Shores Michigan.
Our opening game was against the home team Wasaga Beach Stars. Not our best start to say the least our team was able to still manage to keep the score close and struggle our way to a not so pretty win. Beating the home team 2-1 and moving on to the afternoon match up.
Game two was against what we had heard to be one of the harder teams in the tournament bracket Oro Thunder. Well what ever Coach Bill was selling in that pregame meeting our boys were buying, and they wanted to show everyone. We came out of the gates flying winning battles all over the rink. Up on the boards and through the neutral zone we were not to be stopped. Our defensive pairings were standing strong on our blue line and giving little to no room to the attacking forwards. Then with quick passes and heads up play, they were springing our forwards down the ice time and time again. Leading us to a 5-0 win and a new found swagger to our on ice play.
With a excellent start to the tournament our boys unleashed on the hotel and dove into the pool for some well deserved R&R. From mini sticks to the marco polo boys were bonding more than ever. With the 10 o'clock curfew the fun drew to a end and the boys started resting up for the next days games.
Game three against the Parrysound Shamrocks. Luck would not be on their side. Battling just as hard as the day before our boys battled hard. The Shamrocks came out and would be extra aggressive against our smaller team. Little did they realize is that big things come in small packages like dynamite! Not to be intimidated our boys took the Shamrock aggression and turned it up a notch and battled our way into 10 minutes of penalties in one match. (For the record our away jerseys seem to always have the refs seeing red!) Even with our boys in the penalty box we found the back of the opposition net time after time. Leading us to a undefeated record of 3-0 with another 5-0 victory.
With the perfect 3-0 record we again were on the Express train to the finals and one win away from the "Once in a lifetime opportunity" of representing your center at the International Silver Stick.
The finals would have us meet rival Simcoe Warriors. Having recently beat them 7-1 our boys were thinking it would be a cake walk. That was not the case, having to watch the Atom rep team lose a tuff game in their final watch to Simcoe was a wake up call to our boys, once again Coach Bill and his staff were called upon to turn down the egos and turn up the confidence. With Simcoe riding the back of their #11 they again tried and tried but could not break free and beat our impenetrable Riley Vyse. With our goal tending leading the way our defense was able to get that puck out of our end and back to our forwards, peppering the opposing net minder and beating him on multiple occasions for a 3-0 win and the second notch on our belt for beating Simcoe for the year. With that win our ticket was punched and the banner to be delivered for your 2016 Regional Silver Stick Champions are your Searles Motor Products Novice Rep Team!
The coaches and parents could not be more proud of their hard working team. With back to back to back shut outs and our never ending offensive attack we are firing on all cylinders.
Looking forward to the exciting adventure ahead with our boys representing in St.Claire Shores Michigan on January 20-22 2017. Now not only will we be out to put our town of Ingersoll on the hockey map but to bring home the championship to Canada.
Even though this quote is from a American it is suited perfectly for us now.
"You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. this moment is yours." - Herb Brooks