Oct 26, 2008 | jsippel | 1092 views
Bantam Cyclones - Champions in Simcoe
The Bantam Cyclones defeated the Lincoln Blades by a score of 5-3 on Sunday afternoon to win the Boston Pizza Challenge Tournament.
In their semi-final game on Sunday morning the Cycs came out flying and scored twice in the first period and again just a few seconds into the second frame to open up a 3-0 lead. Connor Johnson redirected a Kyle Sippel shot from the point to open the scoring, wtih the extra assist going to Darren Kerr. Ben Verkley then upped the lead, following some nice tic-tac-toe passing from Justin Bauman and Luke Binning. Binning and John McKeown then set up Bauman straight from the opening faceoff in the second period to put the Cycs up by 3. Early in the third Bauman fed the puck to Sippel at the point who beat the goalie with hard wrister. Port Hope then found the scoreboard while enjoying a two man advantage. Goalie Ryan Hak may have been surprised to see the puck in his end as for the second game in a row he only faced about 3 shots on goal. Midway through the third, Darren Kerr stole the puck at the blueline and broke in all alone and "roofed one" to close out the scoring and send the Cycs to the final with a 5-1 victory under their belts.
In the final game vs. Lincoln, the boys continued with their fast starts as Binning and Verkley set up Bauman, who fired home the opening goal just 55 seconds into the game. 5 minutes later Kerr slid home a rebound after chances by Johnson and Conner Dewar. Then with less than a minute left in the opening period Bauman set up Binning to make the score 3-0 for the Cyclones after one period. Lincoln scored early in the second to close the gap but McKeown fired home a bullet with 5 seconds left in the period to restore the 3 goal lead. Lincoln scored early in the third and then with a minute and a half left they scored again to make it 4-3. But not to be denied, in the final minute Justin Bauman stole the puck from a Lincoln defender and skated in alone on the empty net, where he carefully deposited the puck. Brett Fletcher picked ip the victory in the Cyclones net.
The Cyclones deserve full marks for the tournament victory as they ended up playing each team in the 6 team tourney and finished with a perfect 5-0 record. Well done boys!!!