OMHA CHAMPIONS........ AGAIN!, News, Bantam Rep - Louie's Pizza & Pasta, 2017-2018 (Ingersoll & District Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2017-2018 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Apr 01, 2018 | dhouse | 1364 views
OMHA CHAMPIONS........ AGAIN!

Express Bantam REP Back to Back OMHA Championships!



The Ingersoll Express Louie’s Pizza & Pasta Bantam Reps captured the OMHA Provincial  Monday night before a tremendous crowd at the "Madhouse on Mutual". It was the Associations third Bantam "B" OMHA Championship in four years!

The OMHA journey started in early January and was completed at the end of March to determine a Champion. The Ingersoll boys had to go through some stiff competition to achieve the title.

In the first round, Louie’s Bantams saw their 401 rivals from Ayr, and after jumping out to a quick 4pts – 0 lead (OMHA uses a 6 point style to determine a winner with 2pts for a win and 1pt for a tie) the Flames were able to stave off elimination with a Game 3 victory. Louie’s Bantams bounced back in Game 4 and were able defeat the team for Ayr to head into the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals pitted Ingersoll against one of their biggest Southern County rivals in Simcoe, and after being down 4pts - 0 Ingersoll was able to mount a comeback and hand Simcoe an 8-2 loss in Ingersoll followed by a 2-1 win Simcoe’s barn. In that Game 4 Ingersoll was down 1- 0 heading into the 3rd period of an elimination game the team showed the fortitude and was able to mount a comeback that I’m sure still has the team from Simcoe shaking their heads. This Bantam team knew at this point that a committed group belief goes a long way and momentum plays a huge role in the hockey world. After this win, Ingersoll would beat Simcoe 3-2 back in Ingersoll and wrap up the series but not without some intense moments and the end of this match.

After Ingersoll’s victory over Simcoe it was off to Leamington to play in the Semi Finals against the Southpoint Capitals, Southpoint was an all Major aged team (born 2003) that applied to OMHA to go from "A" classification to "B" classification. Southpoint tried their best to take the Express off the rails with an intimidating style of play in hope to intimidate the you Express squad.  Southpoint was able to extend the series to a 4th game with a Game 3 victory over the Bantams yet Southpoint never really beat Ingersoll’s goalie as Ingersoll had 2 own goals in that defeat. The end of this series wasn’t without controversy as the benches quite possibly could have emptied but fortunately they didn’t.

This year’s Bantam Provincial OMHA Championship Series would see Ingersoll face-off against a team from Mitchell. Mitchell defeated a well-balanced team from Penetang in their Semi Final stopping the possibility of a re-match with Ingersoll and Penetang from last year’s Final. Louie’s Bantams were quite familiar with the Mitchell squad having faced them three times already this season, twice in Pre-Season and once in the Bill Batten Memorial tournament. This series didn’t disappoint, it was filled with lots of hard hitting, amazing goaltending, many creative scoring opportunities as well as solid defense from both teams. Ingersoll would prove too much for Mitchell beating them 2-1 in Ingersoll, 2-1 in Mitchell and 4-3 in Ingersoll with Ingersoll saving the best for last. Going into the flood between the 2nd and 3rd Ingersoll trailed 3-1 and it sure looked like a trip back to Mitchell was in the cards. WAIT! Out of the room come a bunch that decided that wasn’t going to be the case and they had this game tied within the first six minutes of the period. The game winner came shortly thereafter and it was a beauty! Congratulations boys and thanks so very much to everyone that supported this group of young men.