Nov 27, 2012 | shelkel | 918 views
Lancers Come Oh So Close!
The Motown Cup Tournament had it all; A shoot-out in the finals, close round robin games, people asked to leave arenas, referees trying to pick up hockey moms, broken down cars, 2 hour border crossings, late nights, discount deals, Agnes offering to vacuum party rooms to hotel management, Smalesy winning the "Superman" award and of course a group of kids that played their hearts out.
The final shootout loss was a let down, but in no way a damper on the week-end as the Novice B boys played some tremendous competition and didn't disappoint. After an early close loss to now arch-rival West London the boys buckled down on Saturday with two great victories. With most parents still wondering, "who has the room keys?" and "am I wearing socks?" due to the late night, the boys appeared rested and ready as they took it to the Flags of Port Huron (at 7 a.m.). The final score was 5-0 as Lambeth showed the bigger, chippier Americans that, hockey sticks are used to score goals and not used to fish hook your opponent's head. With most body parts still intact and the coaching staff finding their second wind (damn you Canada House!, although delicious at the time...) the boys squeaked out a back and forth 2-1 win over the North London Nationals. The win was highlighted by perhaps the pass of the year in which Cole "feather hands, with a touch of a baby's bottom" Smale found a streaking Dylan "twinkle toes, KNUCKLES" Dundas for the winning goal. Home we went, Coach Jack curfewing everybody - parents included. Some listened, but many did not and after a raging "sit-in" protest over the party room being shut down at 10:30, all of Lambeth was fired up for the semi-final versus Oakville. A light dusting of snow, crisp air and the sound of a vacuum cleaner sucking up the night's festivities greeted the team as we sped off on winter covered highways, to an arena only a Sherpa could find. Again the early start seemed to energize the team as the boys raided, looted and pillaged the Vikings of Oakville, showing them the Lancers of Lambeth would have none of their draconic and heathen ways (history majors unite! bad spellers untie!). The great wall of Ty-na was superb as was the defence as Lambeth cruised to a 5-1 victory. Finals we go. Some shopped to relax, some grabbed lunch and Terry Nelson relaxed by setting the new "Kensington Ice House high score" on Galaga (pushing many younger kids off the machine in the process). And what a nail-biter it was! The boys went up 2-0, then 3-2, then 4-3 and finally the game hit overtime. That solved nothing and the shoot-out was on. Both goalies played great but as with all great Canadian teams, the boys just missed. A huge congratulations on a fine effort. Now the stats:
Simon Moir - 6 G, 4 A and looked dangerous throughout the tourney, our leading scorer
Dylan Dundas - 4 G, 4 A getting better every game, the speed is awesome
Parker Pigeon - 2 G, 3A the master of the spin and shake, scored many timely goals
Noah Nelson - 3G, 1A the man beast played like it - huge breakaway goal in the final
Isaac Irwin - 2G, 2A taking his game to the next level - this scud missile does some damage (you just don't know where or when)
Matteo Santagapita - 2A - the diesel - crank it up and you've got an instant one man forecheck
Cameron Reif - 1G, 1A - Zig-Zag played against the big boys and found space and chances throughout the tourney
Josh Troop - 1G - Has a speed game but always wins the one on one battles, awesome on the boards
Charlie Graham - 1G - finding his moves and using his skating and size to outwork the opposition
Cole Smale - 1A - what was better, his passing or his physical play in his own end? awesome tournament
Matt Milne - 1A - great stick, timely pinching and hustle made for a great 5 games
Logan Slota - protecting our goalie and being physical make him a tough hombre to play against
Sam Basilio - Madskillz improved every game and is learning the position well against some stiff competition
Cooper Kelly - Sweetfeet used an effective mixture of blazing speed, hustle and smarts to shut down the other teams big guns
Ty - small frame, small name....BIG Game - the Wall shut down everything other teams threw at him, makes the above list look good.
Fan of the game - probably wore a white jacket, until South Huron loyal readership, stay classy.