The Atom LL 1 Team travelled to Drayton on Saturday January 8 to compete in their annual Tournament. With solid wins against Walkerton, Mount Forest and Durham over the Christmas break, they were keen to try their game against some new teams.
The Mad Dogs were able to get a good nights sleep ahead of the tournament as their first game wasn’t scheduled to start till 11.15. The tournament was a straight forward “ A side “ “ B side “ – 3 x 10 minute period format and the first game was against Dresdon. Either the “sleep in” worked or else Dresdon was drained after their multi-hour travel to Drayton or a combination of both as the Mad Dogs came out flying. Minto’s strong fore checking and passing led to two goals in the first period following four markers in the second to lead Dresdon 6 – 1 after two periods. Minto’s aggressive style led them to taking 4 penalties, 2 in the first and 2 in the third. Minto notched another goal in the third period to defeat Dresdon 7 – 1
Their win over Dresdon put them against Elora mid afternoon. As soon as the teams hit the ice for warm up, we all knew this was going to be a great matchup for the Mad Dogs. Elora had handily won their first game in the Tournament and during warm up, displayed good puck control, skating and shooting. From the drop of the puck, the play was end to end with good scoring chances at both ends and both goalies forced to make some great saves. By mid way through the first period and neither team on the scoreboard yet, this one was shaping to be a very even match. After the buzzer sounded to end the first period, the score was 0 -0 . Dale, Jamie and Brad called the team over for some strategy before the second period started. The Mad Dogs found some extra offensive push to start the second period but were kept off the scoreboard by some great save by Elora’s Goalie and strong puck clearing by their defence. Minto’s aggressive forecheck earned them 4 power play opportunities during the second period with Kaleb Irvin netting a powerplay goal in the second after getting a pass from Ian Jamieson. Elora never lost their composure and didn’t stop skating hard and dominated puck possession and opportunites during the third period. Minto were able to keep Elora off the scoreboard and when the buzzer sounded to end the third period, the Mad Dogs were victorious with a 1 – 0 win over Elora.
This win put the Mad Dogs into the “ A Championship Final “ against the Host Drayton Team. With only an hour off between games, some nutrition and wind down time was in order. A good crowd was in attendance for the final game with the host Drayton Team playing. The home team crowd were loud and full of support for their team. The Mad Dogs were not distracted by this and were ready for battle from puck drop. On the first shift, the Mad Dogs got the puck and carried it into the Drayton end. A nice pass from Brandon Woodroffe to Kaleb Irvin found it’s way into the Drayton net within the first 20 seconds of the first period. The Mad Dogs kept coming and were able to score three more goals in the first to build up a 4 – 0 lead after 10 minutes of play. This took away any home ice advantage the Drayton Defenders had. Minto were able to score 1 goal in the second and 2 in the third plus 3 successful penalty kills in the third to go on and defeat Drayton 7 – 0 to WIN the “A – Side Championship. Nicest Minto Goal went to Braydon Brooking for his centre ice rush against Dresdon to start the second period. Most post / crossbar hits award shared between Ryan Litt and Kaleb Irvin. Hats off to Owen Day and Bailley Sinclair for outstanding goal keeping all day - including the Penalty shot stopped by a Owen " Luongo " Day. Accepting the Trophy for the Mad Dogs was Kadin Johnson who had an outstanding tournament on defence - Congrats Kadin !!!
Game Opponent Final Score
Game 1 Dresdon 7 – 1 Win for Minto
Game 2 Elora 1 – 0 Win for Minto
Game 3 Drayton 7 – 0 Championship Win for Minto
Thanks to all the Parents for supporting this Tournament and allowing the Mad Dogs to suit up the full roaster of players for each game.
Way to Go Mad Dogs - Another Nice Trophy for the Display case.