Wrapping up Ontario...

Sunday was an interesting one to say the least.  I started the day off pretty upset, realizing it was my last few hours with Evil, as he came out of retirement to help me for the weekend.  It's always good working with him.  He along with John Gelement are the guys I began working with back in 2001 with TORHS.  So I guess you could say it was a sort of throw back weekend for me.

The morning started with Lee Bloor bringing his team in, as he always does, to play the Grizzly Chompers.  I love watching the Mayhem because their coach and their players are some of the classiest in the sport.  They are a good team that has been together for a while now and they would make it to the 18U Tier 1 championship game against Tour Excitement.

Speaking of Tour Excitement, they would start the day with top goalie in the midget division, Donnie Marchetti pitching a shutout of the Mississauga Mission Rattlers Black, by a final score of 2-0.  The end of the round robin games saw the seeds work out where the Rattlers would play Tour Excitement Green in the Tier 2 semi.  Rattlers would take that one 6-0, in a game where Tour Excitement green kept it close in the first half, but the rattlers pulled away with persistence and consistent play.  They would end up facing the Grizzly Chompers in the championship game that would go to overtime tied at 4.  Both teams would move end to end in a 3 on 3 battle but the Rattlers would score the OT winner for the Tier 2 Championship.

The Tier 1 playoffs would see Tour excitement black and Ehhh Canada in a rematch of the nine round shootout game of the previous night.  This one would prove to be a different story.  Tour Excitement would take control early and never look back, advancing to the championship against the previously mentioned, Mayhem.  In this game, Tour Excitement never took their foot off the gas from the semi final game and would win 6-1.  Mayhem did have a strong tournament though as they would win the Top Dishman (Sean Featherstone), and High Scorer (Mauro Ferrazzo) awards.

The adult division saw the best game of the tournament.  This one even topped Saturday's peewee game that I talked about in the previous blog.  We would move through round robin play with he Rattler White team continuing to score goals at an astounding pace!!!  We would move to the playoffs where both Tour Excitement teams would play each other in the Tier 2 semi final.  Tour Excitement Mens had 4-5 players all weekend, just as the Rattler White team did.  I don't know how these guys do it...Anyway, this semi final game was no joke.  It was a game of goaltending and defense (notice the sarcasm).  The Tour Excitement Mens team would grab a 7-2 lead by halftime and hold onto that until about 5 minutes left in regulation.  In a matter of three and a half minutes Tour Excitement JR would score five goals as Chris Kendall and Kenny Tencza would pair up to dominate that period of time with their linemates.  With :23 left on the clock in regulation and tied at 7, Excitement Mens would regain the lead 8-7, only to have Excitement JR tie it up again with :11 left on the clock.  Right off the draw, Excitement Mens would get one last chance, and the puck would fall into the net with 1.06 seconds left for a 9-8 Excitement Mens win.  They would play York Inline in the championship game, but Adult high scorer, Dylan Smoskowitz (York Inline) and his teammates would have no answer for Perry, Archer, Schultz, and Goodliffe in a 9-2 Excitement win.

Tier 1 Adult would find the Buffalo Wings get the daunting task of playing the Rattler White team of Gabe Valenzuela, Liam Kerins, Nate and Jonah Renouf and Daniel Holt.  Even with the great play of the Buffalo Wings throughout the tournament and leadership from longtime Wing player, Todd Lyness, the Wings could not top the Rattlers, as the final score would end up as 7-4, Rattlers.  Zach Penny of the Rattlers would win top goalie, when in reality, if he allowed 6 goals a game, they would still have won ALL of their games!  Althoug the Wings kept it close, they ran out of time in the end.

All in all, it was a very entertaining weekend, and I'm sure downtown Toronto is rockin' tonight as the Leafs have forced a game seven versus Boston.  Boston Pizza, Georgie Juice boxes and Tim Horton's were my best friends in this weekend on Mississauga.  Phil Nolan treated us well, as always, and the hockey was great.

I'm heading out to see Jay Muro and Vio next weekend, and Rapid Fire Arena and the Long Island diner are awaiting me.  We are moving closer to Nationals- CAN'T WAIT!!