TNT Minor Hockey playoff game reports

The Ken Beattie Limited Minor Atom AAs sponsored by ScotiaBank travelled across the 401 to visit the highly touted Kingston Canadians. A team whose accomplishments have matched your hometown Stars over the last couple of years. OMHA titles, many tournament wins and back to back league titles. The only information we had on them was that they were big and fast. Which juggernaut team would survive? What would our travelled team bring for the highly anticipated game number 1?

After a good warm-up, the puck dropped. On a nervous start, the Canadians player gained the blue line and shot a bullet at our net. The blistering shot found the back of the net and like that, the visitors were down. 1-0. Near the end of the frame, our boys started to roll as they cycled down low. From the corner, Wylie Birkett past to Jackson Vojin who saucered one over to Jacob "the Howitzer" Holmes who blasted one past the Birkett screened keeper to tie the game. As quickly as it was tied, the Canadians took it away to take a 2-1 lead into the second frame.

Early in the second, the home side struck again to make it 3-1. This was when our boys really started to play. The young studs although down, were not really out and started to get chances against the home side. Three posts, two or more "how did it not go ins?" but nothing to show. The problem with a team really pressuring to catch up causes the team to give up incredible chances the other way. And that is exactly what our superstars did. We left poor "Balls" high and dry and in the end it was not to be our day.

The final ended 6-3 home side, but most importantly we knew deep inside that we lost in score only. The Canadians are an incredible team but we may have a chance to beat them. Other goals of the game were scored by "the Wizard" Birkett and Graysen "All-Star" Alexander on assists from Holmes, Caleb Thompson, Michael Meszaros and Cole Turcotte. Head home, regroup and try the next day.

With the committed families that we have, (and thank you) we made sure to have an early evening to give our stars a fighting chance for game number 2. As both teams came out for warm up, you could tell the Tornados were ready to spin as they were all focused to try and split the series, which was our goal, heading into the weekend.

From the drop of the puck to the final buzzer, you could tell that our young stars had something to prove. With great saves from Scott "Balls" Barnett, and everyone winning the battles, our fans could sense something spectacular was about to happen. Late in the first, our stars finally struck first on a goal from "Shoots Like a Cannon" Turcotte from Birkett and Steven Mercer to take a 1-0 lead into the second frame.

You could tell this took the pressure off our boys as they just started to roll. Every pass, every shot, even fights along the boards were won by the visiting team. In the second, the boys scored early and often to take a commanding 4-0 lead into the final fifteen. Goals in this frame were from "Cannon" Turcotte with 2 and "the Wizard" Birkett adding a single. Assists from Hayden Santo, Dalziel Kirby, Hayden Forrest, Kyler MacNeil, and Birkett (2).

The final frame saw more dominance as the boys scored another two and then were happy just to dump the puck deep and keep it down low. The two goals this period were scored by "K-dog" MacNeil from Holmes and Mitchell Smilsky and then "Soft Hands" Smilsky from Holmes and Colin Ewing. What a rebound! Make the final a 6 nothing statement.

The boys are back home to play at the NTRC#1 this Friday March 8th at 5:30pm and then again on Saturday for 1pm also at the NTRC#1. Please come out and cheer these young guns on.