Jan 18/19 2020 - It has been a very long time coming…players born in
2011 have finally played their first full ice hockey games…
This past weekend saw 51 teams descend upon the Iroquois Park Sports Complex in Whitby for their inaugural Novice Full Ice Hockey Tournament. Twelve teams represented the AAA division with 20 and 19 teams in the AA and A divisions respectively. Your Oshawa Generals Novice AAA team was one of those 12 teams. Your Generals opened up the tournament facing the very talented Quinte Red Devils. The Red Devils jumped out to a quick lead but that was countered by a nifty tally by Emmett Elstob who became the first General to score a AAA goal for this team. A monumental goal of goals! A great all-around game by the Gennies showing great skills and puck possession and skating with the Quinte team. A few breakdowns on our part lead to scoring chances that the Devils capitalized on leading them to a 4-1 victory over our boys. Not the start we wanted but our boys walked out of the dressing room with their heads held high. Game 2 was against the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs after a team lunch at the Royal Oak South.
Maybe it was the long rest between games or the coming down from playing their first full ice game earlier in the day, the boys managed to eke out a win despite not playing their best game. Victory for the Generals 3-1. Ethan Soverall credited with the first ever GWG for the 2011’s!
Saturday meant two more games and they were both must win games if we had any chance of advancing to the semi-finals on Sunday. Up first was an undefeated team from the GTHL, the West Mall Lightning. We jumped up to an early 2-0 lead, but alas, our boys may have gotten a wee bit too excited and ahead of ourselves. When West Mall scored their first goal, you could feel the Generals boys all tighten their grips on their sticks and get nervous. When the Lightning scored their second goal to tie the game, it was over mentally for our boys. They went on to score 5 unanswered goals to beat us 5-2. Our final game of the tournament saw us come up against a very determined Ajax-Pickering team that had yet to win a game. We came out of the gates on fire and jumped to a 2-0 lead…the boys didn’t get too high this time…awesome!! But when AP scored their first goal…the air drained out of our boys chests and we were mentally down again. The Raiders battled to take the lead 3-2. A lesser team would have crumbled, but not our Gennies! Our boys dug deep and came back to eventually finish the game tied 4-4. It was a victory for Ajax-Pickering as they celebrated on the ice to get the tie. Not a victory in the eyes of your Oshawa Novice AAA Generals…and this shows great things to come for this young squad. So many great things came out of this weekend. I am certain that the coaching staff will continue on their path leading these boys to where we ultimately want to see them go.
Hold my Chocolate Milk Dionne says to Elstob...
With the first full ice games comes many firsts for the boys. Among those things comes first goals. The first ever goal scored by a 2011 AAA General was scored by Emmett Elstob in the first game ever against the Quinte Red Devils. Other goal scorers worth noting are Dylan Tavares and Ethan Soverall who both netted sweet G’s against the Hamilton Jr Bulldogs along with Elstob in the second ever game of the Generals. Game three saw Liam Johnston and Addison Dionne tally the teams 2 G’s. In the fourth game, Elstob once again netted a goal bringing his weekend total up to three. It was at this time that Addison Dionne said “hold my chocolate milk” and he went on to score two huge goals against Ajax Pickering earning the team its first ever tie. Also scoring that game was Nathan Wilkins. When he returned to the bench, Emmet was overheard saying to Nate: “Nice goal, it’s not three goals, but still a nice goal”