The Wilmot Wolverines Atom LL#1 team,
sponsored by Absolute Fitness, participated in the North Halton Twisters
tournament November 18th-20th in Milton with 11 other
teams in the Atom division.
They squared off against the Lucan Irish on Friday to start the tournament. The Wolverines would score midway through the first period to take a 1-0 lead. They would be kept off the scoresheet thru the 2nd period due to some very good goaltending by the Lucan goalie. They would find the back of the net twice in the 3rd period to win the game 3-0 in the opener. The Wolverines would play a relatively tight defensive game that limited the number of quality scoring chances by the opponent.
On Saturday morning, they played their second game of the tourney against the North Halton Purple Twisters and skated to a 6-0W after putting up 5 goals in the 1st period. Teagan would get her first hat trick of the season in this game. The defensive play of the team shined again limiting the number of chances on their own goal in the game.
Saturday afternoon they squared off against the Burlington Rebels, with the winner of this game moving on to the semi-finals on Sunday morning. The Rebels came into the game having given up just one goal. The Wolverines would however score early in the first, put up another 3 goals in the 2nd period and yet another in the 3rd to skate away with a 5-0W and claim the top spot in Pool A.
On Sunday morning, the Wolverines would face the winner of Pool C - the Wilmot Wolverines #2. The game had a torrid pace right from the drop of the first puck with both teams wanting desperately to move on to the Finals. Goalies at both ends came up with some great saves to keep it a close game right to the end. Our team would score midway thru the first period and add another in the 2nd period to come away with a 2-0W and eliminate the other Wilmot team from the tournament.
The Wolverines would square off in the Finals against the winner of the Wild Card – the Clarington Nightmares. Clarington would score the first goal against the Wolverines with just 2.5 seconds remaining in the 1st period and ending the shutout streak for the Wolverines in the tournament at almost a full 13 periods of hockey! The Wolverines would regroup during the 1st intermission though and even the score up at 1-1 less than a minute into the 2nd period. They would come out of the 2nd period with a 2-1 advantage. Clarington pulled their goalie in the last minute of the game to gain the extra attacker, but the Wolverines would find the empty net and win the Championship game 3-1!
Aggressive forechecking by Charlee, Rowyn, Audrey, Emmie, Isabella and Aleah on the half boards and around the net led to a number of opportunities during the tournament.
The backchecking by Teagan and Faith to help keep the pressure on the opponent really supported the defensive effort.
The defence tandems of Olivia B / Emily and Claire / Olivia P were lights out and all of them played their best games of the season in this tournament.
Lastly, goaltender Kasey came up with the big saves we needed in the round robin games thru to the Finals.
For some of the 2nd year players, coach Dan and coach Rick this Championship was something extra special as we have lost the previous 2 years in the Finals of this tournament.
By: Rick Livingstone