Nov 30, 2017 | smcdonnell | 801 views
Silver Stick Results
Free Flow Minor Midgets
The Free Flow Minor Midgets attended the prestigious Whitby Silver Stick this past weekend....
Where they played some great hockey against the best teams in North America. Unfortunately the Red Devils were slotted into arguably the toughest division in the tournament with no weak teams. Up first for the boys was perennial powerhouse and #1 team in the ETA, the Barrie Colts riding a 20 game win streak. The team has played the Colts very strong all year in two previous meetings and with a little luck could have pulled out a victory or two. As has been the case all year, the boys got out to a quick start on Barrie and carried the momentum through to the middle of the 2nd period until a lapse in concentration resulted in 3 quick goals for the Colts to take a 3-2 lead. A couple more shortly afterwards on bad bounces and the Devils found themselves down 5-2 because of 6 minutes of sloppy hockey. That was all the colts needed to skate away with the win.
Up next for the boys was no easy task as they faced the #3 team in Canada in the Mississauga Reps. However, somebody forgot to tell the kids they were facing Goliath as the boys jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead again and held onto it with some solid hockey till midway through the 2nd period where the Reps finally got one by Ethan McDonnell in net. The game stayed tied into the third with both teams playing some stalwart defence and manufacturing few good scoring chances. Finally the Reps hit a lucky bounce and potted the go-ahead goal mid way through the final frame. However, the Devils were not deflated and continued to push for the equalizer until with under 2 mins to go they gave up an empty net goal to seal the game 3-1 for the Reps. McDonnell was a wall in net.
Up next, things weren't going to get any easier for the Devils as they faced the #2 ranked team in Western Canada in the Calgary Edge. This turned out to be a back and forth a fair between two evenly matched teams with both sides playing some fire wagon hockey. Devils got out to an early lead with Calgary equalizing the score right after. Both teams potted a couple more goals each before the Ted Devils put the game away to win 4-3. Matt Tovell was strong in net making some timely saves.
Saturday the boys couldn't take a break as they faced the #1 ranked US team from last year in Chicago Mission. Chicago got out to a quick 2-0 lead as the Devils looked like they had cement in their skates. Eventually after a good push back, the boys took advantage of some power plays to go ahead 3-2 and the game stayed that way until the dying seconds. With the goalie pulled, Mission sent an aggressive player into the blue paint to disrupt the Devils goalie and after some ill-advised contact created a scramble and a loose puck which Chicago found and deposited in the Devils net to tie the game at 4-4. Again McDonnell was solid.