Dec 10, 2014 | dhalloran | 832 views
Semi Final Heartbreak.....
Coming off our most recent game vs the Barrie Colts, a 1-1 tie, the boys wanted nothing more than another crack at them in the finals of the Newmarket Atom tournament this past weekend but it was not to be.....
Based on the rankings, you could say the boys were the underdogs in three of the four games we played over the weekend. The boys dismantled the 36th ranked Pickering Panthers in game one 6-1, followed that up with a 1-1 tie with the Ottawa Silver 7's, and then came back to score five unanswered in beating the 43rd ranked Ted Reeve Thunder 5-3 to clinch first place in our loop heading into the semi's.
The semi finals saw the Blaze go head to head with a very good team in the Uxbridge Stars, Uxbridge finished second in their group by beating the Toronto Aeros 3-0, tying the Newmarket Redmen 3-3 and losing 5-3 to the Barrie Colts in round robin play.
The semi final game couldn't have started any better for the Blaze, 20 seconds after puck drop Jack Mayo streaked in down the right side and beat the Uxbridge goalie short side to give Georgina the 1-0 lead early on. That lead lasted until the third period when a Stars forward split the Blaze defense, deked our goalie to tie the game at 1's!
As the crowd continued to form larger and larger over the Magna Centre ice, three pressure packed periods and a nail biting five minute period of sudden death OT was not enough to decide the winner of this battle!
The stage was set for yet another Blaze upset, this time in shoot-out fashion!! The excitement on both benches and in the crowd was something the boys, parents and coaches will not soon forget. While all 3 shooters made a great effort in the shoot-out, it was not to be as the eventual game winner by the Stars came on what seemed to be a blown call as Uxbridge won the shoot-out with that one lone goal.
Heartbreaking can be the only word used to describe the mood in the room after the game, it was a tough way to lose such a hard fought game, but those things happen in hockey.
We should all be so proud of all the boys after this past tournament, what the coaches saw on the bench was a team of boys that just did not give up, a team of boys that played and cheered for each other no matter their role.
We as the coaching staff cannot say enough about the heart the boys showed this past weekend, we believe this past weekend has made us a better team.