Heart, and True Canadian Grit….leads to an unexpected win
in Rochester…
for Whitby Minor Midget A.
The Whitby Minor Midget A travelled to Rochester this past
weekend (October 23 to 25) and participated in the Empire State Showdown…12
teams from Ontario and New York.
We knew we were in tough as we started the tournament down 3
players, 2 with broken hands and a third with a hip injury…but we were glad
that they still made the trip with us.
We started strong winning the first game by a score of 4 to 2 with 3 goals from Devin Gilligan. However, the wind was quickly knocked out of our sails when Devin, upon stepping off the ice after the game, stepped in a gap between the floor pads and broke his leg in 2 places. Devin was transported to the local Rochester hospital by ambulance and spent the entire weekend in the hospital.
The boys rallied for Devin and changed our pre-period chant from “1-2-3 Whitby” to “1-2-3 Gilly”. While Devin was in emergency, the boys played a very emotional game on Friday night, now with 11 skaters and 2 goalies, winning 2 to 0, however, due to a hit on our goalie, we were down another player for the balance of the weekend.
Saturday started with a 4 to 2 win; that was followed by a visit to the hospital with a special delivery of Dinosaur BBQ ribs for the Gilligans.
The tank was getting empty, the boys were tired with such a short bench, however, energized from their visit to Devin, once again rallied to a quarterfinal 5 to 3 win…..however, we lost another player to a shoulder injury.
Sunday morning came early…the dressing room was pretty empty and we thought about throwing in the towel…but no way….we were not going to give up at this juncture. So our 10 skaters and 1 goalie took the ice, and low and behold….amazingly pulled off a 5 to 2 win. This gave us a birth in the final game where with 9 sore and badly bruised skaters, and 1 goalie, battled to a 1 to 0 Championship win. As the picture will attest too…the boys gave it everything they had….thanks to the full support of their injured team mates.
This team was the talk of the tournament….the photographer asks “where is the rest of your team?”, the timekeeper says “Oh you are the team that has all the injured players, how’s the kid who broke his leg?”
Teamwork at its best…a little luck, and a lot of grit prevails in true Canadian Hockey style.
Banged up and bruised…we are CHAMPIONS and glad to be back in Whitby!!!
With a few days off….lots of ice and a few heat pads, most of us will be ready to roll again next weekend.
“1-2-3 Gilly” Go Whitby Go.