This past weekend, The Chiefs played some of their best
hockey of the season. Playing in the
Shanahan International at two of the most beautiful facilities in Mississauga, ON,
the Chiefs made it to the Quarter Finals before losing a tightly contested
match to the Mississauga Reps.
Before I begin my recap, I apologize to my loyal readers for not posting news articles recently. (BM)
We didn’t really know what to expect as we had lost 2 of our previous 3 games and we had scheduled Round-robin games against Buffalo, North Central, Miss. Senators and Chatham. Three of these teams are ranked ahead of us and the other team – Chatham – is always a tough foe as a number of their boys are friends of our kids.
The Chiefs wasted no time jumping out to an early 4-0 lead against Buffalo. We scored on our first shot on net, less than 1 minute into the game. That seemed to light a fire in the boys as they were pretty much all over Buffalo in the first period. The Regals did manage to score a couple to get back in it, but the referees were not kind to Buffalo as they spent a good part of the game in the box. Personally, I was very surprised at the number of penalties being handed out. It was very frustrating to watch, even when most of the penalties were against the opposition. I was so frustrated, in fact, that I had to leave with about 8 minutes remaining to go sit in the car. I could not take it any longer. While I was gone, the Chiefs scored 3 more times, including an interesting empty-net goal that was awarded due to the fact that a Regal player threw his stick after they had pulled their goalie. This is a no-no and the goal was awarded.
After all the Chiefs had been through recently, I don’t think anyone would have predicted a 7-2 win, but we were all very pleased with the efforts of all players.
Game 2, against the North Central Predators for Orillia started off in much the same way as game one. I also managed to get over my frustrations from the previous game and managed to enter the building just in time for puck drop. The Chiefs scored early and often. Once again, we scored on our first shot in the first minute and continued to pour it on the entire game. It was an amazing showing for these “farm boys” and we smoked the Preds 10-1.
This was an early day so most of the team went to a local restaurant to hang out and continue our team bonding as we celebrated the days’ victories. Tomorrow morning we play the Miss. Senators who lost to the Predators Friday morning in a bit of an upset. We knew they’d be hungry in a must-win game for them.
Incredibly, the Chiefs scored in the first minute of this one as well to take an early 1-0 lead. The Senators were probably the quickest team we had seen in a while and although we had taken a 3-1 lead in the second, some penalty trouble cost us as the Senators fought back to take a 4-3 lead. The physical play was taking it’s tool on the boys but they would not quit and continued to battle until the very end of the game. We would not win this game, but we showed that we are always determined to play hard.
With a long break between the Senator game and the upcoming one against the Cyclones a few of us went to the hotel to try to figure out the Goals For Average tiebreaker as we knew it would come into play at some point. I can tell you that I was frustrated as despite having 2 of the greatest minds in math in the room with me (my wife and my son – not Tim) we could not figure it out. X+y <> z for some reason. Anyway, it didn’t really matter, we knew we had to win against Chatham, We knew we had to score plenty and give up few.
Sadly, we did not score in the first minute of this one. In fact, Chatham kept it tight for some time and we were ahead only 3-1 after one period. I have to admit that I saw one of the strangest goals in my life in this game. I also must say that our goalie did not let it bother him and he insured that no other puck got by him. The Chiefs cruised to a 7-1 victory and headed back to the hotel knowing that we were on the bubble to make it through as a division wild-card.
As the night wore on it became clear that we would be on eof the wildcard teams and it was just a matter of determining where we would fit in. As it turned out, we finished 8th and would have to play the #1 seed – Miss. Reps. They had a fairly easy time of it in their division and went 4-0. Gametime set for 8:45am. Time for a quick sleep and back at it!
A sluggish first period led to an early 3-1 lead for The Reps as they are a fast skating, good passing team. The Chiefs had a great second period, however, and battled back to even the score 3-3. Unfortunately, the Chiefs could not manage any further goals, and the Reps scored one midway through the third and then followed with a clincher later to seal the game away.
The loss does not take away from the fact that the Chiefs may have turned the page a bit this weekend. All boys played their hearts out and although not a battlefield where blood was spilled, there was some rough going and it’s safe to say all kids gave it their all.