The
Tornadoes finished a great weekend of hockey proving that teamwork and skill
will lead to success.
Heading in to the tournament Friday morning the boys faced a tough test against the host Lincoln Blades. Lincoln (reg season 4-5-3) were ready to get things started in their home tournament and were able to capitalize on their early chances to take a 1-0 lead. The boys looked a little slow in the first and thankfully the goaltending performance of Ryan M. kept them in. After the tentative start they decided to buckle down and through solid back-checking and defence forcing turnovers, the offence came back with 2 to start the tournament with a hard fought 2-1 win.
Tillsonburg came back Saturday with another win and you’re in game against the Cardinals up from Mentor, Ohio. An even matchup played out as Tillsonburg moved the puck well and were defensively solid yet the Cardinals still took an early lead. With the motivation of finishing 1st and earning a bye to the semis, the Tornadoes really turned it on and through solid defensive zone coverage and a determined forward group, the boys took over the play and went on to their highest scoring game of the weekend 5-2 to secure their place in Sundays’ semi-finals.
Saturday afternoon also featured a skills competition of speed relay and shootout contest and Tillsonburgs winning weekend continued in a sweep of all events! The relay team of Jacob, Josiah, Blake and Carter won their event and Sean scored on every shootout attempt. Ryan allowed just one goal on 8 shooters.
The semi finals came against the Hamilton Huskies and the boys were ready! Not intimidated at all by the Huskies size the boys came out fast and aggressive. The defence and goaltending combined to keep the shots against to a minimum for the 2-0 shutout.
The final game for the Peewees was also the final game of the tournament. The Tornadoes were ready but the host Blades were ready to get a chance to even things up in the final as they were once again facing Lincoln for the title. The boys came out with some jump in the first and had some good scoring chances and took a 1-0 lead. Shortly after Lincoln tied it up on a flukey one. Soon after Lincoln went up 2-1 and the boys were a little tired and banged up from a tough weekend of hockey and were trying their best to stay in it. As the clock ran down it looked like it was over but with the goalie on the bench and only 6 seconds on the clock the boys tied it up! The 5 minute overtime period had good chances at both ends but solved nothing.
They went to the single round shootout and came up just that short.
All in all it was a great weekend of hockey and the boys should be proud of their effort, teamwork, skill and great attitude! Again a big thanks to the coaches and parents for the effort and support all weekend!