Bantam A Minor Gens Find Success at AA Avalanche March Meltdown Tournament, News, Bantam A, U15, 2017-2018 (Oshawa Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2017-2018 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Apr 01, 2018 | U13 AAA Mgr | 1131 views
Bantam A Minor Gens Find Success at AA Avalanche March Meltdown Tournament
The Bantam A Minor Generals traveled to Etobicoke this weekend to join a AA level tournament for some challenging after season hockey - just to see how they would match up against some AA competition.  The players were extremely pleased with their performance - finishing the round robin at 2-1-1 and qualifying for the semi-finals, where they would end a very successful tournament.
 

  

The Minor Gens knew it would be a tough weekend, as the schedules was released and they saw their 4 opponents for the upcoming weekend - Streetsville, Copper Cliff, Newbridge Academy (NS), and the AA version of the Ajax Knights.

As the tournament opened, the Gens faced their first opponent, the Streetsville Tigers.  After a slow start, the Gens adapted to the speed of the game and jumped out to a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period.  The next two periods saw the players tighten up defensively, and hold on to the 1-0 win allowing only 14 total shots, including only 3 shots in the final frame when the Tigers needed to push back most.

In game two, the Gens faced their new nemesis, the Copper Cliff Redmen - a physical team from Sudbury.  The Gens came out a little flat after their big game 1 win, and despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead, couldn't hold off the pressure from the Redmen as they tallied twice in the second before adding an empty net goal to defeat the Gens 3-1.

A new day saw the Gens needing to collect at least 1 point to have a shot at advancing to the semi-finals, but saw two very tough opponents in the way - Newbridge Academy and Ajax.  The players were not deterred and came out strong against Newbridge to start the morning - scoring two first period goals and jumping out to a 2-0 lead.  After a scoreless second period, the Gens appeared to have gone ahead 3-0 when a bad angle shot ricocheted off the goalie and into the net.  However, after the refs consulted they determined that the puck had entered the net through a hole (not the goalie's) and called the goal off.  After the long layoff, the momentum swung and Newbridge scored two goals in 23 seconds to tie the game up.  At the end of the 3rd however, the Gens had collected that valuable point with a strong 2-2 tie against a very high caliber Newbridge Academy.

As the rest of the tournament shaped up, there were some surprising results that put the Gens into a win and you're in situation against the tough Ajax Knights - and the players were up to the challenge.  After the Knights tried to out-muscle the Gens early, it was the Gens who struck early in both the first and second periods to take a 2-0 lead.  The Gens then received the next 5 penalties, and were penalty killing for most of the second period and into the opening minutes of the third.  The penalty kill remained strong, but the Knights did tally once in the second period to make it a 2-1 game.  However, the Gens had an answer, scoring short-handed early in the third to take a 3-1 lead.  The Knights pushed hard, but could only penetrate the Gens defense one more time to make it 3-2.  As the final buzzer rang, the Gens had pulled off a 3-2 victory and had booked their trip to the semi-finals of a AA tournament!

As Sunday morning dawned, the Gens would get another chance to play the Copper Cliff Redmen in the semi-finals.  The Gens came out a little flat, surrendering a goal in the first minute to go down 1-0 and then the Copper Cliff scored in the last minute of the first on a penalty shot to make it 2-0.  But the Gens weren't going down without a fight, and responded in the first minute of the second period to close the gap to 2-1.  However the Redmen scored late in the second to restore their 2 goal lead.  The Gens would once again respond scoring just past halfway through the third to bring the game to 3-2, but the Cooper Cliff goaltender provide a little too much, stopping all of the remaining 11 shots the Gens pumped on the Redmen net in an effort to tie the game.

Despite the semi-final loss, the coaching staff and parents want to express how proud we are of our players for playing a very strong tournament, defeating some strong opponents, reaching the semi-finals of a AA tournament, and finishing with a 2-2-1 record!!