Nov 19, 2017 | Mike Willson | 1655 views
MD - Minor Peewee Black @ the Guelph Tournament
Waterloo's only loss of the tournament was in the finals as the boys bring home silver. The team represented Waterloo Minor Hockey well with hard work, a thrilling OT shoot out win to get to the finals and a lot of class as they congratulated Brantford with a stick salute.
GAME 1
Waterloo's first opponent of the tournament was against the Oshawa Generals. The boys were down 1 - 0 after the first period. Riley Waters lead the charge as he came up with a natural hat trick and then added an assist as the boys won 5 - 1.
GAME 2
Oakville Rangers were a on the menu next. Oakville kept coming at the team. Austin Zappitelli stood solid in net as he blanked four separate breakaway attempts, including a last second glove save. Riley Waters netted the only goal of the game late in the second period as the team won their second game 1 - 0.
GAME 3
Brantford 99ers came hard at Waterloo. Waterloo went up 1 - 0 on some nice stick work by Lucas Doyle mid way thru the game. Michael Wei gave the team a 2 - 0 lead 12 seconds into the third period. A late 5 on 3 for Brantford yielded their only goal of the game. Cole Matthews shut the door late in the third to preserve the win 2 - 1.
GAME 4
Home town team Guelph looked very solid as the team moved the puck well. The entire game was filled with fast paced movement. Austin Zappitelli notched his second shut out of the tournament when the game ended in a 0 - 0 draw. That gave Waterloo 7 of 8 points and put them in first place.
SEMI - FINALS
With the win over Guelph, that setup a the rematch for the semi finals. Guelph had Waterloo down 2 - 0 early in the second period before Cam MacDonald got one back for the team. Guelph made it 3 - 1 shortly before Matthew Thomas made it 3 - 2 as he dug the loose puck past Guelph. Guelph kept coming hard making it 4 -2 with 9 minutes to play in the game. Lukas Babensee picked up his first goal of the tournament and brought the wolves a step closer to a tie. A last minute power play and with the goalie pulled, Luke Young scored with 43 seconds left on the clock. Wow. The game was nearly over when Guelph raced up the ice and drew the dreaded penalty shot with no time left on the clock. Cole Matthews gave the Guelph striker nothing to look at as he covered the entire net making an incredible stop. The arena erupted in a volcanic fashion. 3 on 3 overtime yielded no scoring as we were off to a shoot out. The first two shooters for both teams could not give their teams the advantage. Young Michael Wei was last to go for Waterloo. He stormed up the ice as as he faked a move to cut across the net, he caught the net minder going the wrong way scoring high stick side. The team counted on Cole one last time as Guelph drew closer to the net. Cole had the shooter covered and did not allow the puck to cross the line. Heart pounding action every step of the way.
GOLD MEDAL GAME
The finals had Waterloo against Brantford 99ers. Brantford 99ers came looking for revenge after their earlier tournament loss to Waterloo. Brantford went up 1 - 0 with only seconds left in the first period. Waterloo kept coming at Brantford but could not get the puck in the back of Brantford's net. Brantford made it 2 - 0 soon into the third. Waterloo kept the pressure on but time was not on their side.
What a fantastic effort boys. You were having a lot of fun and worked very hard in all of your games. The overtime shoot out semi final win was awesome. You never gave up. Keep it up as you head to Ottawa next weekend.
Bring home the GOLD!