Congratulations boys! 2010 Hamilton Jr. Bulldog Tournament Classic
CHAMPIONS!
Wow! What a weekend. We leave town on Friday to sun and (relatively) warm temperatures. Arrive home Sunday evening to 30cm of snow. Was it all a dream?
Obviously, congratulations are in order to the 17 young members of the 99 Chiefs and the coaching staff for a very successful weekend in the Steel City. From puck drop Friday morning, to tournament-winning goal at approximately 5:00 Sunday evening the kids showed that they were here to win.
I will try, in this one to not mention any names as it truly was a team effort but there are a couple of guys I will have to mention a little later in the story. (Chapter 34, page 350). At the risk of offending anyone, I will say that this team has no superstars. This team has no boys who think they are superstars. I think the reason for this is that there are no parents who believe that their child is a superstar. (It there are some, they hide it well). Each game someone else steps up and does something special to help his team win. Whether it be a key goal, a key save, a key block, or something not so obvious like picking up a teammate when he has made a mistake. From what I've seen, these boys all get along and have grown - some over 3 years, some just 3 months - to be good buddies. They care for each other and for this reason, I think I speak for all of us when I say "Way to go, guys! You deserve it"
Who knows if we win another tournament, but now that they know they can, I see great things in the future for the '99 Chiefs.
Everyone knows the top-end teams are not participating in this tournament, and that's OK. We showed signs in the Shanahan that we can compete with the "big boys". Even prior to that, we lead the Toronto Marlies by a goal late in the second period in Detroit. These kids are right there, knocking on the door and I hope they realize now that they have an extra gear and l they can compete with anyone! (as long as we don't have to play them in Glencoe).
First of all, a few Kudos:
- To the coaches. Unfortunately Ryan was unable to make it, but great job to the 3 who were able to come and this shows that you are on the right track
- To RR for remembering the jerseys
- To BF for behaving himself Friday night
- To M. Philip for almost single-handedly getting us to the final with a spectacular 4-goal performance Sunday morning.
- To D. Panziera for scoring the winner (wait until you see the video of where he shot from - just proves the old adage, shoot from anywhere!)
- C. Pearen for being named MVP of the final
(Does this read like a Grammy speech?)
- To the Lord, for without him none of us would be here
(Now it sounds like a Grammy speech)
Onto the Games
Game 1 saw us take on a U.S team called West Seneca. We had not seen them before and found them to be a very good opponent. i was not at this game, but have been told it was a close one and we were a bit fortunate to get the tie. (3-3)
Late that evening, we played North York and had little trouble winning this one 11-3. It was close for a while, but we pulled away in the late second and completely controlled the third period. So far, so good.
Saturday morning we had to play Kingston. This was another nail biter, but we held on for a 2-1 victory and also the knowledge that we would now be playing Sunday in a semi-final game.
Just making it to the semi was not enough. We wanted the first seed and had an opportunity to clinch 1st place in the round-robin with a win over another US team from Rochester NY. Also, for our enjoyment, we got to play at a lovely new 2-pad arena in the Heart of Downtown Hamilton rundown, old 2-pad arena in the seedy part of town. Rochester probably felt right at home. (just kidding! I have not been to Rochester, I know nothing of the place. Just felt like adding a little spice) This was another tight game until late in the third when we scored 3 quick ones to secure first place with a 5-2 victory.
A familiar foe was on tap for the semi-final Sunday morning. Cambridge, one team who most of us feel is one of the most improved teams from last season was standing in our way. As mentioned previously, M. Philip woke up Sunday morning and said "Boys, I guarantee we will be in the final". Now, I seriously doubt that's what he said, but that's what his father told me, so it must be true. The game ended 5-0 with Philip scoring the first 3, and adding a 4th for good measure in a 5-0 win.
Now we were headed into uncharted territory as I do not believe this 99 Chief team has made a Final so it was very exciting. Some of these kids come from winning organizations (Dorchester, Ilderton, Belmont for example) Others come from "also-rans", if you will (Port Stanley, for example). That's not a knock on Port, it's just the way it is. Some of these kids have been on winners in the past, others haven't been so lucky. So, how is this group going to react?
It didn't look good early as the Flyers (Don Mills) scored one in the first, another in the second to take a 2-0 lead. No big deal, the Chiefs responded with the next 3 to take a 3-2 lead late in the third. Unfortunately, a couple penalties against the Chiefs gave DMF a 2-man advantage and they scored almost instantly. Now, 3-3 and the Chiefs still had 1:50 to kill. Pretty easy at this point to have a letdown and let it slip away, but the team takes after their coaches - cool, calm and collected. The penalty was killed and off to OT we go.
This was very stressful and I hope we don't have to go through this any more. Fortunately, late in the second overtime (3-on-3) Panziera scored the aforementioned winner from a nearly impossible angle. Mayhem ensued!
Now, it was just a matter of safely returning home as, outside of Hamilton, the weather was a bit treacherous.
This is where I was hoping to add the vid of the winning goal. I am, however, experiencing some technical difficulties in uploading it. I'll try to iron these out. If not, I can send it to you, it's not very big as I kind of messed up (I'm no Karl). I have the goal, it's just that I didn't get much of the celebration. By "not much" I mean about 1 second lol. Oh well, I still have my day job.
p.s. I uploaded a few of the pictures I took at the game. Check out the Photo Galleries section from the main menu. If anyone wants all of them, I can burn a CD for you. I took about 250 pictures (many of them are junk, of course, or pictures of you-know-who). If you do get them, I highly recommend looking sequentially at the team photos and just watch one kid. (Panziera is a good one) At 3.5 fps you get some funny faces :) Just let me know.