Jan 09, 2012 | bmiller | 536 views
Schlueter Hyundai London Tournament
This past weekend Schlueter Hyundai traveled to London to compete in the North London Nationals Blue and White Tournament.
The teams first action of the tournament came early Friday morning against the Erindale Blue Sharks. The team arrived excited and ready to play skating to a 5 - 2 victory.
The offense came from a balanced attack with three lines contributing. The line of Flanders, Dietrich, Brookes, and Noble starting things off with a goal late in the first period. Davis, Duquette, and J. DeMers would add a marker of their own midway through the second.
Shortly after Schlueter gained the two goal lead Erindale would score their first goal of the game to make things interesting. However the lines of Davis, Duquette, and J. DeMers along with Flanders, Dietrich, Brookes and Noble would each score one each in quick succession giving Schlueter a 4 - 1 lead.
After Erindale scored again to make things interesting the line of Wigmore-Lopez, Horvath, and Anderson were finally able to capitalize after dominating offensively all game.
The defense tandems once again had a strong game. Domaratzki and Jones were able to chip in with two assists in the contests. Haney and Elhedhli along with Garland and Steffler played a sound positional game. This was by far the best game the defense had played all season with superb positioning in both the defensive and offensive zone.
C. DeMers played strong in net when tested, making a number of difficult saves look easy.
The teams next action would come later in the day against North London who proved to be stiff competition. The team knew it would be a difficult game and came ready to play.
Schlueter was able to keep the game close through the first period holding the strong London team to two goals. However London would add three more in the second and two more in the third before the line of Wigmore-Lopez, Horvath, and Anderson scored to break the shutout late in the third.
The other two lines of Davis, Duquette, J. DeMers, and Noble as well as Flanders, Dietrich, and Brookes also payed hard giving their best effort against a difficult opponent. It seemed that no matter how hard they tried, their was very little room on the ice against a strong skating London team.
The same can be said about the defense partners of Haney and Elhedhli, Garland and Steffler along with Domaratzki and Jones. They showed commendable effort right the last whistle.
C. DeMers continued his strong play stopping a remarkable number of shots, keeping his team close early in the game.
After a team dinner, some time at the pool and a little mini stick action the teams next game came early Saturday morning against the Port Credit Storm. Schlueter once again had a difficult game against a higher ranked house league team.
Port Credit was also able to score two goals in the first followed by three in the second and two in the third. Schlueter was not able to generate much on offense mustering less then ten shots on goal. However the line of Wigmore-Lopez, Horvath, and Anderson were able to score twice. The others lines of Noble, Duquette, and J. Demers along with Flanders, Dietrich and Brookes also played hard.
Once again the defense pairings of Haney and Elhedhli, Garland and Steffler as well as Domaratzki and Jones played to their best ability.
C. DeMers stopped a remarkable number of shots keeping Port Credit to seven goals when it easily could have hit double digits.
Due to the standings following round robin action Schlueter would once again face Port Credit in the semi-finals. After reflecting on the previous game the team knew that with a little more positional play, and by putting more pressure on the opposition, they would be able to compete with the favored opponent.
This proved to be true as the team came out in the first period showing heart and determination holding Port Credit to only one goal through the first period. Every line and defense pairing played to the best of their ability and showed a no-quit mentality.
Unfortunately midway through the second period after Port Credit had added a couple more goals, C. DeMers was forced to leave the game and Brookes took his place in goal. Despite the teams best efforts they were not able to come up with a goal in the contest and eventually lost the game 7-0.
Although they were not able to move on to the finals the team never stopped showing heart both on and off the ice as the "Water, water, water...Loo, loo, loo" cheer could be heard straight through the game. The team never gave up and they supported each other through all of the adversity. It's great to see a team win, but it was even more rewarding to see the team respond to the tough situation the way they did.
Hopefully all of the players and parents enjoyed the team building this weekend, after all that's what these tournaments are all about! A big thank-you to all of the players and parents for making it such an enjoyable weekend for the coaches. Finally congratulations Schlueter Hyundai you represented Waterloo well!