Nov 15, 2016 | Greg Adriaanse | 988 views
2016 Cambridge MD Festival Minor Bantam Champions
The weekend of Nov 11-13 saw the Minor Bantam Black Wolves battle to a
win in their first tournament of the year. The Wolves were the dominant team in
a 7 team group taking a total of 6 games to win the Championship. They started
their weekend with a complete team effort and blanked the home team Cambridge in
a 4-0 win.
With a 10 hour wait in between games on the Friday the Wolves came out firing on all cylinders against the London Bandits scoring a quick 4 goals and chasing the London goalie. They continued to move the puck quickly and with a strong forecheck racked up another 4 goals and chased the other goalie as well. With time running down and an 8-1 lead in the third period, the boys relaxed a little too much and allowed the London team to score twice in the last few minutes leaving a 8-3 win and again collecting a point for every period as they did in the first game giving them a total of 10 points in 2 games and sitting comfortably as first seed.
On the Saturday, the boys faced the other London team in the tournament, West London Hawks. They again dominated the first 2 periods with a tenacious forecheck and strong control of the puck in the London end with the boys controlling the half wall and behind the net. They took a 4-1 lead into the third and the London team battled back to score 2 but in the end the boys came out with a 4-3 win and an extra 2 points for winning 2 of 3 periods.
The second Saturday game had the Wolves facing the Kitchener Blue team with the boys setting the tone and scoring first within 8 seconds. The boys went on to dominate this game and win 5- 1 giving them the first seed going into the semi-finals Sunday morning against the London Bandits leaving Cambridge and Kitchener Red to battle it out in the other semi final.
The boys ran into a very hot London goalie to start but again the forecheck and winning battles all over the ice with the D limiting the London scoring chances the boys went on to advance to the finals with a solid 4-1 win.
The Wolves advanced to the finals to face a tough Kitchener Red opponent. They got behind early but battled hard to tie it up and then took a 2-1 lead on a good power play goal. The boys worked hard and went ahead 3-1 early in the third. Kitchener made it 3-2 with PP goal on the two man advantage. The Wolves then sealed the deal with an insurance marker with 58 seconds left in the game emerging with a solid 4-2 victory.
Thanks to all the boys for their hard work and solid team effort. This team is starting to gel and are on 10-0 run.
