LL4 final puck drop of the season at Syl Apps Tournament, News, Midget LL4 |, U18, 2018-2019 (Paris Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2018-2019 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Apr 03, 2019 | midget4 | 537 views
LL4 final puck drop of the season at Syl Apps Tournament
Our players concluded the 2018-2019 Midget season in our hometown as our team played in the Syl Apps Tournament and managed to get in four exciting games, two of which were against our other home teams, LL 3 and LL1.

Friday night our team hit the ice to confront the Dresden Junior Kings – White team, our team is familiar with Dresden having played in their hometown tournament earlier in the season; however, in their tournament we only had the chance to face their Maroon team so the chance to play their other Midget team would complete the full package experience.

Our late 9:30pm game start allowed all but two of our players, Deryk and Lucas, to suit up for our tournament opener game.  Both teams squared off well in the early minutes of the game and it was only near the half way mark of the period would there be a change in the score as the Junior Kings earned the first goal of the game.  

Our Wolfpack answered back less than two minutes later as Josh Hicks skated in on the Dresden goalie and with an impressive fake shot, fooled the goalie to drop down while Josh skated around him to deek the puck in the net to return the score to a 1-1 tie.

The second period continued to be a close game with Dresden only earning an additional goal and claiming a lead in the game.  As the game pressed on, so did the players and penalties were being called due to the intensity that all players were pushing for and preventing of goals.  This aggressiveness came to a head in the third period and it resulted in a Dresden Junior King player being ejected for a GM penalty.

The Junior Kings saved their best hockey for the third period as they were successful in finding three goals in the game.  Our Wolfpack team were forced to fight off 3 consecutive penalties over the last four minutes of the game this definitely plagued our scoring chances.  Although, our players played short, we had a burst of energy and opportunity as Dresden was given a 5 minute penalty with 2 ½ minutes remaining in the period.  Our players played out the final time in the period in the Dresden zone; unfortunately, their net minder proved to be their player of the game with stopping all of our chances and winning the game for his team.

On Saturday our team had an afternoon and an evening game, the first game was against Simcoe County TNT who came off a 6-0 win against our LL3 team the night before, so this was going to be a tough game.  In addition, we were missing 3 of our top forwards, Jaden, Riley and Lucas, so this meant shuffling our lines, including putting Deryk up on our forward line which strengthened our scoring chances. 

This fast paced game forced skaters to change on the fly as whistle calls were not coming soon enough and TNT with a full bench had the upper hand on our team.  By the time the first period ended, TNT was ahead by just a single goal.  

Leading into the second period our players were not far behind and they put on more pressure to their opposing team, including some great passing plays and scoring chances between Spencer and Evan, amongst other forwards.

In between the posts, Caleb was putting on an outstanding performance of an array of saves including a sniped glove save that mesmerized the TNT forward who couldn’t grasp how he saved his shot.  Our team was just a minute shy of keeping the score unchanged until Simcoe County earned a goal to raise their lead to 2-0.

The third period could only be described as not being short on penalty calls and between both teams there was 36 minutes in penalties that were handed out, this effected play and neither team could focus on scoring and the game ended with a 2-0 win for TNT.  This team had a good record winning of all six tournament games and won this year Syl Apps tournament for the Midget division.

In between games on Saturday, our LL4 team held a team lunch in the Punter Suite overlooking the Davis Ice pad so we can watch and cheer on back to back games for our Bantam LL1 and LL2 Wolfpack teams.  During our lunch the coaching staff presented awards to our players, this included:

·         Coaches Player Role Model Award – Spencer Noseworthy

·         Team Player Role Model Award – Fletcher Adam

·         Break out Player of the Year – Josh Racette

·         Technical Player Award – Jonah Hunks

·         Penalty Kill Award – Deryk Rosebrugh

·         Strategic Player Award – Josh Hicks

·         Defensive Player Award – Caleb Hunks

·         Forward Award – Riley McHutchion

·         Back Check Award – Lucas Cooper

·         Passing Award – Kaleb Marin

·         Game Changer Award – Riley McLelland

·         Break Out Play Award – Jackson Thibodeau

·         Positioning Award – Cameron Hussey

·         Puck Handling Award – Evan Shipp

·         Versatile Award – Jaden Larry

Coach Bob presented two additional awards:

Ø  Bobby Rocket Award 2019 – Future Leader Award to Spencer Noseworthy

Ø  Bobby Rocket Award 2019 - Dedication & Commitment Award – Kaleb Marin

Saturday’s evening game was a great rematch against our Paris LL3 team, who we had played twice in the season, with each of our team’s claiming one win against one another.

The first goal of the game came at the last 38 seconds in the first period for LL3 to claim a point for this period.  Their chances continued as they found a second goal against our LL4 team with 3 minutes into the opening of the second period. 

What was starting to look like a game in favour of our hometown opponents, soon changed over the next 2 ½ minutes as our LL4 team scored back to back goals.  Our first goal came seconds after LL3’s last goal as Josh Racette passed the puck to Deryk who scored our team’s first goal of the game.  Two minutes later Spencer set up Riley McHutchion who buried the puck by the LL3 goalie to tie up the game at 2-2.

The third period was anyone’s game; however, we were soon going to learn that Jaden was going to claim this time as his own as he had, in my opinion, his best period all season, as he was all over the ice and was making great plays. 

His hard work quickly earned him a goal in a 3 way play that started with a hail Mary pass from Josh Racette.  Jaden picked up this pass and went in one on one against the goalie for a shot with rebounds following between Riley Mc Hutchion and Jonah before Jaden received a pass to the open side of the net for him to score.  Jaden pressed on each play following and had another great scoring attempt nearly scoring as he hit the cross bar, that barred up instead of down.

With a minute and a half remaining in the final period Kaleb Marin passed to Spencer who took a shot and beat the goaltender to double our lead.   The final minute of the game Jaden returned to the ice and scored his second goal of the game in another 3 way play with assists from Jackson and Josh Racette.  Jaden’s sights on a possible hat trick were within his reach, if it wasn’t for the final buzzer that just came to early. Jaden would have to settle knowing he earned the winning goal of the game.

It was close and after some score reviews and goals for and against, our Midget LL4 earned a wild card spot in a quarter finals game for Sunday morning against our Midget LL1 team.

The next morning we awoke to a late March snowfall and in true Canadian fashion and for good fortune I filled up our cooler with fresh snow to bring our team some luck and cold drinks and snacks.

The start to our quarter final game, against Paris LL1 team, seemed like it was going to be a close, fun match up; as both teams waivered back and forth, testing each other out to find the first goal of the game.   At the 8:25 minute mark Deryk, while closing in on our opponents net was eyeing the top left corner and with precision he delivered the puck firmly in the top corner with a shot that went through and split the defensive line.

Our team managed to hold on to this early lead for most of the initial period before LL 1 team, on a 3 way play scored and returned the score to a tie at 1-1; fortunately, Deryk again on his game returned to our opponents zone and helped Fletcher with stuffing in the puck past LL1’s net minder, claiming a point in the first period for LL4.

In the second period the full dynamics of the game changed, on account of a string of penalties called solely against our team and one GM – 5 minute penalty that many felt was a little too heavy handed.  This meant that our team would be forced to play short for most of the period, offering LL1 an advantage in helping them score three goals by the end of this period.

By the time the third period rolled around our players lost interest in the game and confidence with the referees’ calls and effortlessly played out the final period.

At the end of the game the coaching staff and players congratulated and thanked one another for a fun filled season but it was bitter sweet for our third year Midget player Riley McLelland as he won’t be playing for PMHA next year; however, we joked that he will be joining some Adult leagues to play alongside coaches and parents.

I would like to thank our coaching staff this year, Bob Hunks, Coach, Terry Shipp, Assistant Coach, Greg Thibodeau Trainer, Greg Adam, Manager and Krista Cooper, B-up trainer for their time, talent, resources and leadership that they invested in our players over the last 7 months. 

As you can imagine they invested a lot of time to prepare for the season, for practices, attending games, communication among other tasks related to being a part of a team bench and it is dually noted and appreciated.

Congratulations and thanks to all of our players for demonstrating some great hockey and displaying outstanding sportsmanship and being excellent Paris Minor Hockey Association representatives.

To reflect back over the season, I have added, to our LL 4 team’s website page, 4 pages of photos from the season and certificates and awards for your viewing.

Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing summer and I look forward to seeing everyone next September for the start of the 2019-2020 hockey season!

Kevin Noseworthy

Parent / Player Rep - Midget LL4