Jan 01, 2013 | benglish | 1771 views
MINOR BANTAM AE CHAMPIONS - AJAX CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENT
The Minor Bantam AE team sent out 2012 in style with an exciting tournament win in the "Ajax Christmas Tournament"
Our first tournament game saw us matched up against the Whitby Wildcats. The first period had Whitby open the scoring with 5 minutes and twenty seconds left in the period. It would not be until 3 minutes and nine seconds to go in the second that The Blaze was able to come back to even up the game. With 3 minutes and thirty-six seconds left in the 3rd period The Blaze was able to find the back of the net and hold on for the 2-1 win.
Our second game saw us meet the host team Ajax Knights. The first period went scoreless and The Blaze finally opened up the scoring half way through the 2nd period, before the end of the period Ajax would come back to even things up. The 3rd period would see The Blaze take back the lead only to have Ajax battle back with an equalizer ending the game in a 2-2 tie.
Game 3 would have us meet an American team from Michigan, The Lakeland Hawks. This would prove to be a very physical game. The Blaze made it first to the scoreboard halfway through the first with the Hawks quickly answering back with a goal of their own. The Blaze would add 2 more goals in the 2nd period and a fourth and final goal late in the 3rd. With 1 minute and 53 seconds left in the game Lakeland came back with a 2nd goal, however the Blaze shut them down to win the game 4-2.
With our win over Lakeland we clinched first place in division "A" setting us up to meet the 2nd place team of the "B" division; the Ajax Knights.
The semi final game saw back and forth action with no scoring in the first period. With only minutes to go in the 2nd The Blaze popped in 2 quick goals to take a 2-0 lead into the 3rd peroid. With 2 minutes and 39 seconds left in the 3rd period a win was looking inevitable for the Blaze when Ajax came back with 2 quick goals of their own forcing the game to overtime! The 1st and 2nd overtime came and went with no scoring. The players on the ice are now down to 3 on 3 with 24 seconds left in this 3rd overtime. Big "D" gets ahold of the puck and takes it down the ice tucking a beautiful goal up in under the crossbar to secure us a trip to the finals!
The Championship game saw us matched up against the Caledon Hawks, a team we had previously meet in an earlier tournament this year with the outcome being a 2-2 tie.
Caledon came out strong this was not going to be an easy game. We finally opened the scoring with 3 minutes and 41 seconds left in the first and then added a second puck to the net with 6 minutes and 8 seconds left in the 2nd, Caledon fought back and put themselves on the score sheet 3 minutes later. The 3rd period would prove to be very tense seeing us battling a 6 on 4 for the last minutes of the game fighting to keep the puck out of our end. Through hardwork and determination we held on for the WIN!
Thanks to players and parents for a great tournament!