Mar 25, 2012 | Pete Verbeek | 1824 views
WOAA Champions
Well the season is over and what a terrific finish. The final round of the playoffs began with a tough overtime loss on the Monday night. The kids played great but just could not beat the Wingham keeper. In game #2 vs Wingham, the team knew it needed to win to keep their dreams of a Championship alive as Wingham had already beat Goderich in both their games. The kids played hard and after trading goals through regulation, we were again heading to overtime. Nine minutes of overtime solved nothing but then in the final minute and us needing a win, Ty got the puck by the defense and Maddox raced in and scored the game winner which meant the team still had a chance.
We still needed to beat Goderich in both games to end up in a tie with Wingham at 3 wins and 1 loss to end the round robin. Then it would be decided on a tie breaking formula based on periods won.
With Justin Hamilton dressed and on the bench (couldn't play on doctors orders), the team started off with a bang against Goderich scoring a few quick goals and never looking back. The final was 6-2 lead by Justin Houstin-Hines with a terrific game and the hat-trick. We then headed to Goderich on Sunday still needing a win and to win some periods in order to secure the championship, A late goal in the first period allowed us to lead 2-1 after one. The second would see us score two more goals (one by Justin Hamilton who only played a couple short shifts in the offensive zone the whole game) to lead 4-1 after two. After winning the first two periods it would appear that we only needed to win the game to come home with the trophy. The kids played an excellent third, although Goderich would not give up and outscored us 2-1, the final ended up with the Listowel squad winning 5-3. Then we had to wait to see if the Championship was indeed ours.
After both teams got their WOAA medals for winning their respective divisions, the WOAA Novice Local League White Division trophy was presented to our Listowel team.
The parents and coaches are so proud of this team as they worked hard to earn this Championship.
This awesome team is as follows:
Goalie - Myles Novotny - came up with the big saves when we needed them
Defense
Matt Wieringa and Camden Balzer - played against the other teams top line and held strong
Adam Bauman and Kora Givens - played strong and came through when needed
Forward
Justin Hamilton - a strong player all year, was on the DL for a large part of the finals but still managed to come out and chip in as support and score in his limited icetime
Maddox Brennan - played great in the finals and his two-way play helped our team offense and he stopped many a rush by hustling back.
Justin Houstin-Hines - saved his best hockey for the finals and came through with some big goals
Ty Verbeek - great forechecking and some big assists in the finals
Jayannth Ravi - played some great center and helped generate many chances
Tyler Stanley - came through with some big goals in the finals
Domenic Mitchell - filled in on defense when needed and also played great in both positions
Sadie Long - played great positioning throughout the playoffs and was oh so close to scoring today
Ethan Huber - scored a big goal in the final game and worked hard all playoffs
The Coaches would again like to thank the players and the parents for a great season. And also Tara, our great manager, for all her hard work.
Randy, Rod, Brett and Pete