30th Annual Vic Teal Hockey Tournament, Dec. 28-30, 2007

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“No Regrets”

The Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers  came up short in their quest for a championship at the 30th Annual Vic Teal Memorial Hockey Tournament in St. Catharines during the weekend of December 28-30, but they need not have any regrets about their quicker-than-expected exit, having played some fantastic hockey during much of the competition.

Here is a recap of their four round-robin games:

12/28 Noon – Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers vs. Oshawa Ontario Motor Sales Minor Generals

The Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers began their quest for a Vic Teal tournament championship by soundly defeating the Oshawa Motor Sales Minor Generals in thier first round-robin game on Friday afternoon at the Seymour-Hannah Sportsplex in St. Catharines. #19 Cole McKnight threw a pass from the right wing into the slot area and onto the tape of #9 Brett Larocque’s stick, who made no mistake in staking the Tigers to a 1-0 lead only 2:39 into the contest. From there Welland’s stingy defense took over, limiting the Generals to only 18 total shots in the game, with #1 Korey Bedard making the difference on the few good scoring opportunities that presented themselves to the Generals. #4 Drake Nadeau would give Welland some breathing room at 1:26 of the second period, scoring an insurance marker that was assisted by #18 Brooker Muir. #16 Damien Lalonde followed up with another excellent scoring chance at 3:45 of the period, but could not get the better of Oshawa net-minder #1 Keegan Precoor on the play, which kept the game at 2-0. #14 Stevie Czepek flipped a beautiful backhand pass from behind the net out to Nadeau in front, where he readily recorded his second goal of the game at 4:50 of the middle frame to put Welland ahead 3-0. This three-goal lead was more than enough to allow Bedard to record the win, and also his second shutout of the season, although it didn’t come without its challenges. Bedard was forced to stop a breakaway opportunity from #14 Eric Jordan at the six-minute mark of the second period in order to preserve the whitewash.

The Tigers were 0-for-4 with the man-advantage while killing off five short-handed chances during the game. Welland out-shot Oshawa by a 32-18 margin.

Welland faces off against the Hamilton Reps in their second round-robin game of the tournament on Friday afternoon.

12/28 5:15pm – Hamilton Millcroft Financial Group Limited Reps vs. Welland L.J Walters Insurance Tigers Despite out-shooting their opponents 33-18, the Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-0 decision on Friday evening. While the end result didn’t match their earlier effort in the day, their work ethic did.  Every skater did a fantastic job of finishing off their checks this evening, which once again helped the Tigers control puck possession for much of the contest.  The forwards, in general, did a fantastic job rushing back into the defensive zone and back-checking, particularly in the final minute of play in the first period, which helped prevent a near-certain Hamilton goal on a dangerous-looking play.

#7 Kevin Rotter displayed some fantastic work down-low during his first shift of the second period, fighting off two Reps players to generate three excellent scoring chances in the opening minutes of the frame, but no one could solve #61 Benjamin Csiernik on this night.

Down two men for a full two minutes, the Tigers allowed Hamilton to score the go-ahead goal on the powerplay at 2:41 of the third period.  As is my policy with all short-handed goals surrendered, I’m going to blame the penalized player(s) first, and then the three (or four) remaining players on the ice ahead of the goaltender, although it did appear to be a rather soft goal allowed.

Hamilton was given another gift goal by the Tigers at 6:58 of the third, when #11 Michael Menechella was allowed to skate out freely from behind the net and into the prime real-estate of the slot area before releasing a beautiful backhand shot that beat goaltender #30 Trent Podrebarac just underneath the crossbar.  Some shots will not be stopped no matter how good you are, and this was one of those. It goes without saying that this goal wouldn’t have occurred if one of the players on the ice would have made contact with Menechella on the play at any time before or as he was releasing the shot.

A game is rarely decided by one or two plays, and this game was no different.  These two plays may have helped unravel some of the great work that the Tigers had accomplished on the evening up to that point, but an equal measure of blame must go to some sloppy play on offense (particularly no-look or drop-passes that ended up in the hands of opposition players on several occasions) and a power-play that remains largely ineffective, once again going 0-for-4 on the day and creating too few threatening chances.  All of these factors, not just one or two players, contributed to this disappointing 2-0 result.

Unlike their game against Halton a few weeks ago, these Tigers handled themselves extremely well after being dealt a lot of physical abuse during the game.  The referee let the players play, which is nice to see, but there was a lot more that he could have called on both teams if he was inclined to do so.  Several players received late hits, punches to the head and slashes, etc. throughout the game but each Tiger did the smart thing and skated away without taking a retaliatory penalty.  That’s true toughness.  That’s “big-picture” hockey.  That’s putting the team first.  Whatever you call it, that’s smart hockey, and that’s what I love seeing from these guys, whether they end up winning the games or not.  There will always be other games to win, what counts is how you go about trying to win them.

It’s easy to get down after losing a game that many expected beforehand to win.  It’s time to step up, pull together, and keep doing the things that bring the team success instead of finger-pointing and laying blame for what went wrong tonight.  If these Tigers can put in the same type of effort that they have these past two games, less the miscues, then they will find success during the remainder of this tournament.

The Tigers now face regional-rival, the Niagara Falls Thunder in their third round-robin game to be played Saturday morning at 10:15am.

12/29 10:15am Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers vs. Niagara Falls Thunder

The Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers took advantage of some early rebounds surrendered by Niagara Falls netminder #33 Nathan Buccella en route to a 8-1 victory in their third round-robin contest at the 30th Annual Vic Teal Memorial Hockey Tournament.

#18 Brooker Muir started things off at 1:18 of the first, with #4 Drake Nadeau collecting an assist on the play.  #17 Morgan Lavoie followed up with his first of two at 1:53, as he cashed in on another rebound.  #1 Korey Bedard was tested in the Welland net at 5:41 of the first period when #8 Shawn Merza skated in alone on a short-handed chance.

Lavoie would swing the momentum back into Welland’s favour with his second of the game at 7:56, making it 3-0 Tigers.  #6 Travis Sheldrake would tally the fourth unanswered goal for Welland at 8:29 of the opening frame, which really seemed to take all the fight out the Thunder.

Niagara Falls would break up Bedard’s shutout bid at 3:42 of the second period, when #44 Devon Rymarchuk took a pass from #13 Jonathon Snook and scored a power-play marker to make it 4-1 in favour of the Tigers.  Nadeau would answer right back with his second of the game, lighting the lamp at 4:04 and #11 Denis Creighton would record a Tiger’s powerplay goal at 8:46 from #18 Muir to make it 6-1.

#2 Cameron Blakely would send a screamer in from the blueline that beat the Niagara Falls net-minder at 0:49 of the third, but the goal of the game came from the stick of Nadeau at 12:08 of the final period.  The goal itself was spectular but the strong play that preceded it was.  Nadeau fought off two players behind the Niagara Falls net to bring the puck out to the right side of the goal, was tripped up in the process, and then regained his footing to score a short-handed marker to close out the scoring at 8-1.

The Tigers out-shot the Thunder 33-16 and were 1-for-6 with the man-advantage.  Niagara Falls capitalized on 1-of-3 power-play chances in the game.  The Thunder were assessed two separate Checking-from-Behind penalties, which left them without the services of #66 Kory Kemp and #9 Vito Scaringi for much of the game.

12/29 4:30pm Niagara University Jr. Purple Eagles vs. Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers

If this game were only two periods in length, the Welland L.J. Walters Insurance Tigers would have handily walked away with the victory and advanced into the next round of the tournament. After neither team scored in the opening period that saw each team record only three shots on net apiece, #4 Drake Nadeau would put home a fat rebound for a 1-0 Tigers lead at 9:40 of the second.  #2 Cameron Blakely would make a great play at the blueline to keep the puck in, and #7 Kevin Rotter would take full advantage scoring the Tigers second goal at the 11:00 mark, assisted by Nadeau and Blakely.

Nadeau would light the lamp once more, blasting one from the face-off dot after a clean face-off win, for a 3-0 Tigers advantage at 13:21.

#48 Carson Cavers scored a short-handed marker after a giveaway in the defensive zone to lift the spirits of the Purple Eagles.  More defensive miscommunication lead to another Niagara goal at 4:26, as #2 Michael Malaney put the puck past #30 Trent Podrebarac making it 3-2.  From this point on the Tigers seemed to be on their heels and could not dominate the Purple Eagles as they had done earlier in the contest.  The Purple Eagles would proceed to tie the game at 13:53 off a draw in the Tiger’s end, in which relief goaltender, #1 Korey Bedard was completely screened and had no chance in stopping.  #22 Zach Klapp would complete the comeback by scoring a break-away goal on Bedard with only 21.8 left to play.

Certainly this could be viewed as nothing other than a total team collapse on the part of the Tigers who surrendered four goals on four shots in the final period.  Favoured to be a contender for this tournament championship, this loss certainly carries quite a sting with it, but does not completely overshadow the great play shown from the team at several other points during this competition.

Tremendous credit must be given to the Purple Eagles for not giving up when they were down in this game and having the skill to take complete advantage of the few opportunities that presented themselves,. The Tigers defensive corps displayed a very solid defensive effort all tournament, with the exception of a few mistakes,that unfortunately resulted in some costly goals.

Mistakes and losses happen to even the very best and all that one can do is try to learn from them and use them to get better going forward. After seeing such strong team efforts and great attitudes from this squad during this entire tournament, I have little doubt that these Tigers should be able to rebound from this disappointing early-exit to be a strong contender next weekend’s competition in Barrie.  Good luck, Tigers!

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Filed under 2007-08 L.J. Walters Insurance Minor Bantam AAA Tigers, Sports Writing/Commentary, Tournaments/Playdowns

Tags: 2007-08 L.J. Walters Insurance Minor Bantam AAA Tigers, Hamilton Reps, Niagara Falls Thunder, Niagara Jr. Purple Eagles, Oshawa Minor Generals, Sports Writing/Commentary, Tournaments/Playdowns