Jan 02, 2013 | bmiller | 147 views
Atomc Red Christmas Tournament
Atomc Red enjoyed playing in the House League Christmas Tournament last week.
The team started the tournament off against Atomc Blue. Both teams played fantastic hockey games to start off the tournament, which was evident in the back and forth scoring. After a tight period, Blue took the first lead of the game scoring late in the first.
Red took little time to tie the game though, as Annett, Noble, and Perry scored just over two minutes into the second period. With three minutes left in the period the pace picked up once again. Blue would score next to take a 2-1 lead. After that (according to the game sheet) Hankins was able to score a goal all the way from Florida to tie the game before the end of the period.
Blue would battle their way to a lead once again two minutes into the third. However once again, Red would not quit and Horvath, Kelly, and Sothern scored to tie the score 3-3. Only one minute later though Blue scored to take the lead, which they would not give up. All three forward lines including Paiva-Bernard and Kytola were able to generate scoring opportunities over the remainder of the game, but non were able to capitalize making the final score 4-3.
A depleted defense staff of Wagner and Endres; Reeve and Domerchie had a great game to open the tournament. They did not allow the opposition to take a two goal lead, despite falling behind four times throughout the game.
Storms played very well in net. He could not be blamed for any of the goals, particularly the fourth goal after he was pushed into the net.
Following the one goal game, Red had to brush off the loss quickly as they faced Gold the following day. The team was able to start the game off exactly as planned when Annett, Noble, and Perry scored to give the team a 1-0 lead. The team was not able to sustain the momentum as Gold scored two goals of their own before the end of the first to take a one goal lead.
Both teams would play solid defensive hockey for the majority of the second period. No goals were scored until Annett, Wagner, and Kytola scored to tie the game 2-2. It looked like the team would be heading into the third tied. However after a Red player was hauled down, Gold took the puck and was able to score with only 7 seconds left to take the lead once again.
That is when the wheels fell off. Gold went on to score six goals in the third to win the game 9-2. Following the tough third period Red was able to learn a lot from the game. When the team was playing well, all three lines including Horvath, McGoldrick, and Sothern skated hard both on the fore-check and back-check. Secondly, The defense pairings of Steffler and Paiva-Bernard; Domerchie and Reeve; Endres and Kelly played solid positional hockey and battled hard in front of goaltender Storms. Storms was forced to make too many saves on second and third chances, and the team would need to do a better job in their own end.
Using what they had learned the game before, Red faced White for their last game of the Tournament. White was coming off a win and a tie, so Red knew they were in for a tough game. However Red was determined to end the Tournament on a winning note and every single player came out to play.
All three forward lines fore-checked hard, and back-checked even harder. This resulted in the first period Red had hoped for as Noble, Horvath, and Perry along with Annett, McGoldrick, and Sothern scored to give the team a 2-0 lead.
The team continued their strong play into the second period. The two lines of Annett, McGoldrick, and Sothern along with Noble, Horvath, and Perry scored again to double the teams lead. Kytola, Wagner, and Annett also scored to bring the score to 5-0.
The scoring slowed down in the third, but Horvath, McGoldrick, and Sothern added one more goal to make the final 6-0.
Along with the forwards, the defense of Steffler and Paiva-Bernard; Domerchie and Reeve; Endres and Kelly played almost a perfect hockey game. They played fantastic positional hockey in their own end and helped maintain the offensive pressure in the oppositions end.
Storms ended the Tournament with a personal victory, making a number of saves to preserve the shut-out.
Although Red was unable to move onto the semi-finals, they did learn a lot from these three games that they will be able to use in upcoming tournaments. The team will head to London from Jan. 11-13th to represent Waterloo in the Jayden Elmore Memorial Tournament.