The Atom A Blue team
headed North last weekend, with the League Playoffs right around the
corner the Wildcats thought it would be fun to have one last tournament to get prepared.
The Tournament started off on Friday afternoon, the boys were excited to get to the rink and ready to get the weekend started with a tough affair vs the Cumberland Jr. Grads. The Wildcats came to play, only 11 seconds into the game we were up 1 – 0, then 3 min into the game it was 2 – 0 and with only 1-minute left in the first period it was 3 – 0 and that was all they needed to clinch game 1 as Austin Lee was solid between pipes to solidify the 3 – 0 shutout.
Next up for the Wildcats was the TNT Tornado’s, they just came off a win themselves and I could feel that this determined team was going to give us fits around our net all game long but the boys stayed composed and didn’t panic, back and forth the teams went with 1 for TNT and 1 for Whitby until it was 2 – 2 heading into the third. The boys dug deep and found a way to win 3 – 2 starting the tournament 2 – 0 and solidifying themselves at birth in the semi finals.
Before the Semi’s on Sunday morning the Wildcats had to take on the Perth Wings to finish the round robin play, Perth came out flying, shot after shot after shot and before we knew it the Wildcats were down 4 – 0 only 5 minutes into the game. The Wildcats were stunned at the score at that moment but this team has been down before and with all that game left to play we thought we had a chance to make a great comeback and a comeback they made. In the final 30 minutes of play the Wildcats had 7 different goal scorers light the lamp and put 9 unanswered goals past the Perth goalie to win the game 9 – 4.
With a 3 and 0 start to the tournament the boys were ready to take on Semi Final Sunday. We would see the Mississippi Thunder Kings, now this team was big and strong. They knew how to play their game and knew how to get pucks at the Wildcats net, with 18 shots on Whitby’s , Jack Vickery stood tall winning the battle and collecting the teams second shutout of the tournament with a 2 – 0 victory that sent the team to the Tournament Finals vs Woodstock on Sunday afternoon.
Woodstock to this point had played 4 games, they had scored 12 goals over those 4 games and only let in 2 so they knew it was going to be tough to beat there netminders but they were up for the challenge. With a 0 – 0 score after 1 they knew it was only a matter of time before one of these great teams were going to score and with that said at the 5:34 mark of the second period the Wildcats struck first, then at the 2:43 mark of the second the Wildcats lite the lamp again. At this point both teams were sharing chance after chance but both goalies were standing tall. Woodstock would come back and score early in the third period to make it a 1 goal affair but that didn’t faze Whitby as they would bury 2 more goals before the end of the third taking a 4 – 1 lead into the game. Woodstock would put on a push near the end of the game and score two late goals however it was too late as the Wildcats would take the 4 – 3 victory and call themselves “2019 Peterborough Lift Lock Tournament Champions”
The coaching staff and parents are so proud of these boys, the heart, determination and dedication they showed all weekend long was awesome to see and we would all like to wish them the best heading into the 2019 OMHA playoffs.