The Major Bantam Lakers travelled to Waterloo this past weekend to participate in the Gold Puck Tournament and made it as far as the semi-finals.
Friday
Game 1: vs. North Bay Blades
The Lakers opened their involvement in the tournament with an early afternoon game against the North Bay Blades. The Lakers scored early in the first after
Matthew McCracken (an AP from the Listowel Bantam Rep team) passed across to
Mac MacSorley on the far side of the net who fired the puck into the open side, second assist to
Greg Williams (see video below).
The Lakers added to their tally a minute later when Michael Siddall sprung Braydon Blight who drove down the wing and fired a shot on net. The rebound came out front to Kyle Sippel who chipped the puck in to make the score 2-0 (see video below).
The second period saw the Lakers continue to control the play and outshoot the Blades. However, the Blades would score a power play goal in the dying seconds of the period to reduce the Lakers’ lead to just a goal.
The third period started with the Lakers continuing to play hard and pressure the Blades. The Lakers were rewarded in the first 30 seconds of the period as G. Williams fed Brett Stacey at the point. Stacey moved across to open ice and then fired a shot that proved too hot for the goalie to handle, the other assist went to McCracken (see video below).
The Blades scored another power play goal later in the period to make the score close at just 3-2 for the Lakers but the Lakers were just too strong for the Blades and the final score of 3-2 saw the Lakers opening the tournament with a win.
Game 2: vs. Waterloo Wolves
Next up for the Lakers was a game against their league rival and tournament host Waterloo Wolves. The Wolves popped in a couple goals midway through the period before the Lakers responded with a goal of their own on a breakaway by Nick Castell, assists from Riley McCabe and PJ Conlon (see video below).
The Wolves scored again before the period ended to go up 3-1.
The Wolves proved to be too much for the Lakers to handle this game as they scored twice in both the second and third periods en route to handing the Lakers a 7-1 loss.
Saturday
Game 3: vs. Grey-Bruce Highlanders
The loss to the Wolves the previous day had put the Lakers in a tight spot that meant they had to win their game against the Grey-Bruce Highlanders to keep their hopes of advancing to play on Sunday alive. As well, the Lakers had played the Highlanders in two exhibition games at the beginning of the season and been defeated soundly – the Lakers were looking for redemption. With a couple injured players, the Lakers tapped the Lakers Minor Bantam team for some of their talent and called up Roland McKeown and Jacob Middleton to bolster the squad.
The Lakers got off to a great start in this game by scoring in the first couple minutes. Iain Donnelly fed Devin Williams who was cruising in to the front of the net. Williams put the puck upstairs to give the Lakers the 1-0 lead, assist by Michael Siddall (see video below).
Roland McKeown made his presence known just over halfway through the period when he took a pass from Donnelly, “turned on the jets” and wheeled down the ice and into the Highlanders' zone. McKeown drew the Highlanders’ defenders to him and then slid a pass across to Braydon Blight who was all alone on the far side of the net. Blight made no mistake in recording the power play goal (see video below).
The second period saw the Highlanders get a power play goal of their own halfway through the period to cut the lead in half at 2-1.
With just a one goal lead going into the third period, the next goal would be huge in determining the outcome of this game. The Lakers got that goal just a couple minutes in on a play that started with Kyle Sippel passing the puck to Jacob Middleton in the high slot. Seeing the crowd of bodies in front of the net, Middleton opted to fire a hot pass to Riley McCabe just off to the side of the net. McCabe executed a spin-a-rama move and blasted the puck into the net to give the Lakers a 3-1 lead (see video below).
It was a goal that sent the Highlanders reeling and before they could recover the Lakers had added another goal on the next shift. This goal came when
Nick Castell took the puck deep into the Highlanders’ end, through the corner and then passed the puck through traffic out front to
Greg Williams in front of the net who made the score 4-1 (see video below).
The Highlanders got a goal in the last couple minutes but it wouldn’t be enough as the Lakers took a 4-2 win.
Game 4: vs. Timmins Eagles
The Lakers final game was against the Timmins Eagles who had suffered a 12-0 loss to Waterloo earlier in the day. A Lakers win would ensure the Major Bantams would advance to the semi-final game on Sunday.
The Lakers again had a great start as they scored just 8 seconds in after a turnover gave PJ Conlon the chance for a shot on net and he made no mistake (see video below).
The goal had happened so fast that the Lakers’ fans hadn’t even realized it happened.
The fans made up for their missed cheer on the first goal by cheering loudly on the second goal midway through the second period. This goal came on the power play after Michael Siddall passed the puck back to Brett Stacey at the point and Stacey’s shot was redirected by Greg Williams past the Timmins’ netminder (see video below).
The Lakers then followed this up with another goal a minute or so later to go up 3-0. It was G. Williams scoring again and this time he tipped a Carter Simpson shot (see video below).
Timmins finally got on the scoreboard with a few minutes to go in the period to make the score 3-1 for the Lakers.
Timmins scored early in the third period on the power play to make the score 3-2 and the game a lot more interesting. Just seconds after scoring their second goal the Eagles almost scored again but had the goal waved off due to a high stick. This seemed to wake the Lakers up as they had been slow moving at the start of the period. The Lakers then scored a power play goal to increase their lead to 4-2. Mac MacSorley scored this goal by splitting the Eagles’ defencemen and then shooting the puck between the legs of the Eagles’ goalie (see video below).
That would be it for scoring for this game although it did get a little rough in the final two minutes when a couple Timmins players went looking for trouble (something I’m sure they regretted after the scuffles were over).
With the win the Lakers finished second in their pool and would play the Soo Thunder who were first in their pool.
Sunday
Semi-final Game: vs Soo Thunder
It was a depleted Lakers squad that took to the ice on Sunday morning as two players were serving suspensions from the previous game, one player was still injured, and two were playing hurt. The Lakers were committed to giving it their all, nonetheless.
Things didn’t start well for the Lakers as they found themselves behind 1-0 a couple minutes into the game. The boys keep working though and managed to get a power play goal early in the second period to tie things up. Iain Donnelly scored this goal after Michael Siddall passed to him from the far side of the net (see video below).
With almost two periods in the books and just two minutes to go it looked like the Lakers would get to their break between periods while the ice was flooded with the game tied. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as the Thunder popped in two quick goals to put the Lakers down 3-1 at the end of the second. The Lakers depleted ranks and injuries were taking their toll.
The two goal deficit was just too much for the Lakers to come back from as tired legs just wouldn’t move as fast as the players wanted. The Thunder added another goal in the third to defeat the Lakers 4-1. The Thunder went on to face the Waterloo Wolves in the final where the Wolves won 4-0.
All in all, the Lakers had a successful tournament and reached their goal of at least advancing beyond the round robin portion of the tournament. The Lakers now return to regular season action next Saturday when they face the Kitchener Jr. Rangers in St. Marys at 5:30 pm.