There is no better way to get a feel for your team and build
team comradery then getting into an early bird tournament. The Waterloo Wolves did
just that in entering the Best of Best Tournament in Halton Hills Thanksgiving
weekend.
The Wolves went undefeated in the round robin but fell to a
strong Cheektowaga Warriors team out of Buffalo in the semifinals.
In game 1 the Wolves tied 2 to 2 against the Halton Hill
Thunder. Ben Morton got the Wolves on the board first with a shorthanded goal from
a nice stretch pass by Jackson McNichol. McNichol then scored a goal of his own
from captain Matthew Ball. Drew Cribbins was spectacular in net for his team,
especially in the third, with the Thunder putting everything at the net and
Cribbin steering shots from harm’s way.
Against the Glancaster Bombers the Wolves came alive with a huge
7 to 1 win. The Wolves added three more shorthanded goals with goals from
Griffin Beddis, Declan Uniac and Evan Wallace. Both Beddis and Wallace’s goals
were unassisted and Uniac’s goal was set up by Ball. Cole Hunsberger scored a
pair of goals with his first from Riley Webster and his second from Ball. Webster
scored on the powerplay. Uniac had his second goal in the game from Webster. Hunter
McMurdo was laying hits all over the ice sparking his team.
A lesson about the importance of not letting teams hang
around was learnt in the game against the Guelph Gryphons. With the Wolves
dominating most the game, the team failed to show that killer instinct and the
result was a tie in a game they should have won. Ball continued his hot play scoring
from Jake Patterson and Hunsberger and then added an assist on Uniac’s goal.
The Wolves saw some nice plays from the backend with Evan Walsh, Ethan Wasylyshyn
and Jack Smith making nice breakout passes and plays to break up scoring
opportunities.
Up against the Clarington Torros the team knew they could
not lose the game and despite not winning it, a 3 to 3 tie was enough to have
the team clinch the semi-finals. Jack Thompson scored a huge goal to get the Wolves
started from Morton and Jack Mayne. Hunsberger scored from Uniac and Cole
Ledgister scored a nice redirection from Thompson. Cribbin continued his hot
play despite being over worked with Sam Miller lost to injury. Cribbin stepped
up playing every game of the tournament.
In the end the result wasn’t what they wanted in the semifinal.
Hunsberger added another goal to his stat line from Paterson and Wallace,
nonetheless. The team came together and showed some good things that the
coaches were impressed by as well as many things the coaches know they need to
iron out and fine tune. All in all, it gave the Wolves an opportunity to get in
some game action and have the team bond.
Way to go Wolves!