The Bantam AE’s traveled to Wellesley for a Friday afternoon matinee for game two of the Silver Stick Tournament to face the Tillsonburg Tornadoes. After losing game one to Ayr the night before, the Cyclones knew that they had to come out flying and win this game in order to have a chance to move on into the quarter finals of the tournament.
Tillsonburg came out flying and had some great scoring chances in the first couple of shifts of the game. Thanks to some great saves from Brett Fletcher between the pipes, the Tornadoes were held off the score board. With eleven seconds left on the clock in the first period, Justin Miller fed the puck to Paul Lockie, who buried the biscuit for the Cycs. Early on in the second, Kyle Sippel added to the lead with some nice passing down low from Tyson Duck and Michael Hogwood. Halfway through the third, it would be Hogwood who would stretch the lead to three with assists from Duck and Sippel. With five minutes left in the third, it appeared to be a runaway game for the Cycs as Sippel again added another goal to the lead with Duck getting his third assist on the night. However, Tillsonburg wasn’t going to roll over. With just under four minutes left in the game, they scored their first goal and then scored a second just twenty-two seconds later. The Cycs turned up their defensive play and put a quick stop to this, ending the game with a 4 – 2 win.
DAY THREE AT THE SILVER STICK
On day three of the tournament, the Cyclones would end their round robin play against the BCH Ice Dogs. This was a desperation game for BCH as they had to win in order to continue on in the tournament, but all the Cycs needed was to win one period. The fans saw some great back and forth action in the first with lots of chances at both ends, but the scoreboard still showed zeroes at the end of the first. That’s the way it stayed until 4:44 in the second when BCH finally capitalized on their fourth power play of the game. The Cyclones’ Zach McPhee answered back less than two minutes later and the game went into the third, tied at one. Each team had two more power play chances in the third, but neither could take advantage of the opportunities. Finally, with just over one minute left in the game, Paul Lockie was rewarded for his hard work on a nice deke and a shot upstairs. This goal would prove to be the game winner. BCH was going home and Listowel was moving on to the quarter finals.
QUARTER FINALS
The Silver Stick Tournament Committee treated our boys to a very nice buffet style lunch at the community center between games and then it was back to the arena for the quarter finals against the undefeated Strathroy Rockets. Right from the first drop of the puck, both teams were pretty even in this fast paced game. The Cyclones were outshooting the Rockets early in the first, but it was the Rockets who scored the first goal late in the first. The Rockets went up by two five minutes later. With just under three minutes left in the second, the ref made a couple of questionable calls that put the Cycs on a 5 on 3 penalty kill and the Rockets capitalized. Down by three, the Cyclones seemed to come to life in the third when some good hustle by Michael Hogwood finally put the Cycs on the score board. The Cycs ran into penalty trouble again late in the third and once again, the strong power play of the Rockets put them up 4 – 1. This is the way the game would end. All of the boys worked hard and displayed some great team play throughout this tournament. The boys should be very proud of their efforts.
The Bantam AE's are back in action on Wednesday, November 19th at 8:30 p.m., in Drayton, for an exhibition game against the Drayton Defenders!
Tim Matheson