Sep 16, 2013 | Steve McGeown | 1323 views
Tournament Gold Medal Winners!!
Waterloo Wolves Major Atom AAA traveled to Peterborough this weekend for the Pat Larock Memorial AAA tournament and played to a perfect 6-0 record on their way to the tournament championship!
In their opening round games, Waterloo defeated some tough opponents on their way to ensuring a top 4 spot would be reserved for Sunday action. Waterloo opened the tournament with a convincing 5-1 victory over Hamilton Huskies, and earned a very hard fought 1-0 shut out victory against a very fluid skating and skilled Clarington Toros team. This was then followed up with victories over Kanata Blazers 4-2 and the host Peterborough Petes were then shut out 2-0.
This set up a very tough semi-final battle against a highly ranked, highly skilled Ajax Pickering Raiders team where the Wolves prevailed 2-1 to earn a berth in the finals. After coming out flying against the Halton Hurricanes in the final and taking a 2-0 lead, some penalty trouble and uncharacteristically sloppy play lead to Halton not only getting back into the game but taking a commanding 4-2 lead. However, a determined and resilient Wolves team showing a lot of character regrouped and stormed back to tie the game 4-4 in the third, and playing their best hockey of the tournament in that third period, soon rewarded themselves by getting to the net after some great puck cycling activity to break down the Hurricanes defensive zone coverage. Taking the lead, their relentless puck pursuit caused mistakes and capitalizing on the turn-overs lead to an insurmountable 8-4 lead and the eventual tournament gold medal win.
The entire team owes their success this weekend to the phenomenal goalkeeping tandem of Marshall Nicholls and Misha Stastna. Both goalies were instrumental in every game, both posted save percentages well above .900 and easily outperformed the opposition goaltending at every opportunity. The defensive corps in combination with the outstanding play of the goalkeepers allowed the fewest GAA of any team in the tournament by a wide margin. Kyle Maloney was an unstoppable offensive machine with 10 points, lead the team in shots and posted an incredible team leading +13 plus/minus rating. And newcomer to the team Ryan Hanson showed us he never met a net he didn't want to crash and produced a hat trick in the tournament final victory.
In short, a great effort by the entire Wolves team and what a way to start a season!