Betcha think there is more to that story don’t ya?
6000 wonderful hockey players and 500 Atom and Peewee hockey teams from around the World gathered in our Nation’s Capital for the prestigious Bell Capital Classic and the Grey Highlands Waste Management Minor Peewees were there. And boy oh boy this was an event that our guys will remember for the rest of their lives. They had a great time this weekend and were great representatives for the entire Highlander organization. Ours hats are off to the tournament organizing committee and volunteers who handle more hockey players than Carter has Liver Pills and pulled this one off without a hitch in their gittalong.
There was a lot to report and I wasn’t quite sure where to start but let’s try it this way:
Day One, Wed Dec 29, 2010:
This was our travel day for most and everyone arrived in Kanata on time and safely. We were all especially proud of Phyllis for getting Scotty there even though she doesn’t like the “big roads”. She loaded up Ross and their whelps in the Suburban sometime Monday morning and took the back roads. She said the weather was fine in Sue Sweet Marie and most of the hitchhikers chipped in for gas. Good job Phyllis.
After a team dinner in Kanata the boys and their families went to see the Senators and Carolina Hurricanes at Scotiabank Place. The Canes won the game, Coach Scotty was disappointed but everybody else took it in stride except for some Leaf fans in the building that had a few problems controlling their emotions.
It’s fair to report that everyone in the Highlander contingent was on their best behaviour at this event. Well......almost everyone. Apparently the boys got a little carried away and removed their upper garments and waved them about like Spring Break on a Florida Beach......not that I would know anything about that. This shocking display of full frontal nudity did not reveal any six-paks but I did count a couple of three-paks, a two-pak and a whole lot of snak-paks. They did, however, manage to get themselves on the Jumbotron and contrary to popular belief our team manager did not participate. The person that looked a lot like our manager was actually Garrett Logie.
The boys went to bed as soon as they got back to the hotel while the parents remained awake and alert for quite some time to discuss plans for the next few days. The Hall Monitor on the first evening was the always reliable Grandpa Dave. There were no incidents to report.
Day Two, Thursday Dec 30, 2010:
This was Game Day for the Highlanders and they were put up against the hometown Kanata Blazers in an early morning tilt. Jack Armstrong was between the pipes and apparently he had a better breakfast than most on this day as he was solid in the First Period. It’s fair to say that most of our guys looked a bit sluggish as the Blazers opened the scoring with about 7:20 to play. The Highlanders gathered themselves in the Second Period and Jakob Lee finally tied the game with 10:50 left to play. Then we immediately got an untimely penalty just seconds later which I believe was the TSN turning point. Kanata scored on the power play, regained the momentum and carried it through to the end of the game. The home squad scored 5 goals in the Second and added two more in the Third. The boys just didn’t get it together on this day and we were off to a bad start to the tournament.
Jakob Lee was Player of the Game and Noah Johnson was voted Hardest Worker.
But then we went to the All Star game and the rest of the World found out what Highlander hockey was all about. Boy, did we have some superstars in that one. The Waste Management Minor Peewees were represented by Jakob Lee, Noah Johnson and Danny Skinner. Coach Tom was also one of the selected coaches. As you can imagine, there was a big crowd on hand for the game with every team in the Minor Peewee division represented and supported by their teammates, parents and fans. Our guys were only superb in this game. They all played for the same team of course and when it was all said and done Danny, Noah and Jakob were the guys everyone was talking about. Noah Johnson had 2 goals and 2 assists. Jakob Lee had 2 assists and Danny Skinner had 1 assist from a point shot that everyone thought was his goal outright. Danny was awarded the Top Defenseman in the All Star Game and the Pride of the Highlanders got points in every goal scored for their team. It doesn’t get much better than that folks.
The boys went to bed as soon as they got back to the hotel while the parents remained awake and alert for quite some time to discuss plans for the next few days. The Hall Monitor on the second evening was the sometimes reliable Papa Louis. Apparently Papa Louis was found the next morning wandering ....sorry.....monitoring the wrong hallway. There were no incidents to report.
Day Three, Friday Dec 31, 2010:
This was a tough day for the Minor Peewees and will forever be written in the Highlander Yearbooks as a day of confusion and disbelief. It’s safe to say that the two games we played left most of us shaking our heads.
We thought we could have played better on the first day but our guys looked tired and it just wasn’t going to happen. But the Highlanders were all fired up to get back into the race. Our first contest was against a very good team from Pennsylvania, the Valley Forge Minutemen and we were ready to turn on the heat. The boys started out like a house on fire with speed and good solid Highlander hockey and Jakob Lee got us the scoreboard early in the game. That’s where the fun began. Apparently the referee in this game was not accustomed to aggressive hockey the way it’s played in the SCTA or he was taking this “hands across the border” thing a little too seriously. Just after we scored our first goal, one of our defensemen was assessed a five minute major and game misconduct for hitting from behind. Sorry folks, but the contact was on the open ice and at the very worst might have been a two minute minor. At any rate, now we are down to four players on defence since we were already short due to injury and the Minutemen took full advantage by scoring two power play goals. But the boys were still working hard and we were only behind 2-1 after the First.
But we continued to play shorthanded and we had to try and play somebody else’s game plan. The Minutemen scored another power play goal late in the Second and Jakob Lee scored again to get us back to 3-2 before the period ended. That’s when we went down to only three guys on defence as another one of blueliners was assessed a minor plus a 10 minute misconduct for a hit to the head when a little guy ran into our big guy. This was a terrible call that left us with three guys on the Blueline, the Highlanders were losing their composure and the coaching staff was “not pleased”. The Minutemen scored a power play goal to open the Third. Jakob Lee did complete his hat trick with about 12 minutes left but the Valley Forge Minutemen scored 4 more of their own power play goals before it was all said and done. We are still very proud of our guys for their effort and how bout Captain Jake with three goals. The Player of the Game was Troy Weber and the Hardest Worker was Bradyn Thompson.
Sorry if I appear to be whining folks, but I guess I am. Somebody has to tell that guy with the striped shirt that Highlanders wear Kilts.......not Dresses and there’s one helluva difference when it comes down to AAA hockey. A great job by our boys. But we are still going to a man short for the next game.
Game number two on this Friday afternoon was at another rink against a very strong team from Hartford Connecticut, the New England Jr. Falcons. The American boys would have to be figured as the favourite, judging by their track record and they didn’t need any help. We were still short handed on defence from the previous game and weren’t sure if we were supposed to put on our “polite” Canadian face for these guys. Well, it didn’t take long to find out. We got a penalty on the first shift of the game on a bit of a phantom call. Then, on the next shift we were assessed another two minutes for.....get this.......”Body Contact”. Our Coaches were less than impressed and after a bit of a delay in the game, the tournament officials explained to the referees that this was full contact hockey, the penalty was rescinded and the game continued. But the tone was set and it turns out that this was that particular referee’s first ever Peewee hockey game. The New England boys were used to playing games with less contact as their “full” contact hockey doesn’t really start until Major Peewee. We lost this game too. The score was 8-1 with Scotty Chisholm getting us on the board in the Second Period. Jack Armstrong was solid in goal and we really didn’t play all that well this afternoon as a team. Let’s give fair credit to the New England Jr. Falcons who played very well this day. The Player of the Game was Eric Charlebois and the Hardest Worker award went to Jack Armstrong. Good job guys.
So.... You can see why this day was a bit frustrating. We can’t really crawl all over the referee in the second game because the tournament committee put him in an awkward position. His first ever Peewee game should not have been a game at the AAA level.
The boys went to bed as soon as they got back to the hotel while the parents remained awake and alert for quite some time to discuss plans for the next few days. The Hall Monitor on the third evening was the ever diligent Gramma Lee.......not to be confused with Gramma Lamb the pie lady.......but they buy their Rolling Pins at the same store........and she’s not afraid to use it. There were no incidents to report.
Day Four, January 1, 2011:
The Waste Management Minor Peewees wish everybody out there a very Happy New Year. It’s a new year, a new morning and a brand spankin new hockey game in a brand new rink to attend. Now how Canadian is that?
We know that we are out of the running for this tournament so this last game was being contested for pride and we sure wanted to leave this town with a win. Our opponent was the Seaway Valley Rapids from points unknown. Our boys had lost three games in this tournament but they have also gained a whole lot of fans from other teams who came to cheer us on. They kinda liked our guys and who could blame them. Everybody knew that the Highlanders would not go silently into the night, but they would leave this tournament kickin and screamin.
Right from the drop of the puck it was apparent that the boys wanted to win this one in a bad way. They were fast, aggressive and made quick changes that quite frankly were pretty to watch. The First Period was only outstanding hockey by both teams. Ryan Winter was “on” his game from the goal crease and Scotty Chisholm got us on the board assisted by Eric Charlebois and Ethan Bullivant. There were a lot of solid hits in this one too from Ethan, Mark, Quinton and Tyson. The tone was set and both teams were giving as much as they got. The referees let the boys play and the fans on both teams appreciated the effort. This game was a dandy.
The Second period didn’t start out too well as we received two penalties on the same whistle and we played two men short for two minutes. The Rapids scored on the five-on-three and added another with three minutes to play. The Seaway Valley Rapids lead 2-1 after Two.
The play was still even in the Third until, with 9:37 to play, Mark Dupont fired one from the point and Troy Weber fed Jakob Lee who made no mistake. The game was tied at 2 goals each. The rest of the period was played equally as the score would attest until Troy Weber broke the deadlock on a beauty pass from Captain Jake and the score was 3-2 Highlanders with 45 seconds left on the clock. The Rapids pulled their goalie but Scotty Chisholm found Jakob Lee and banged it in the open net.
The MVP of that game was clearly Ryan Winter and the Hardest Worker was Ethan Bullivant. Hey Greg, over there in Afghanistan....YOUR BOY DONE GOOD..........
We win 4-2.........and are undefeated in 2011.........told ya so.
After that game they went straight to the skills competition where Evan Spencer, Noah Solinger and Scott Chisholm appeared to be winners in the Skaters Agility Relay but “they was robbed”. And I’m going to make another statement right off the cuff. I’m going to tell you just how tough these guys are. They played hard hitting Canadian hockey. They had a lot of injuries and played through the pain. The defence was tired, hurt and short staffed. And I am especially proud of our own Garrett Logie who stepped up and put his injured body on the line when he was called to do so. That’s a tough kid.
The team and parents had a terrific weekend folks. We are very proud of the boys who tried very hard in their games, made a lot of friends, traded a whole lot of pins, won a trophy at the All Star Game and each of our guys in that game had points on the score sheet. “Who could ask for anything more”......somebody should write song about that.
See you next week folks when it’s back to the old grind. It’s the Hamilton Junior Bulldogs next Saturday and the Welland Tigers next Sunday at 1:00 PM in Chesley.
Grandpa
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