Jan 14, 2013 | Eric Robertson | 1018 views
Heartbreak in Forest
“Broken hearted” commented Darren Drehmer, one of the Coaches for Midget Rep team after being questioned on the feeling coming from a semi final loss to Minto. The team was defeated by a final score of 4-2 in Forest on Saturday evening at the International Silver Stick tournament.
The Midget Rep team won the Regional Championship a couple of weeks earlier, which gave them a birth into the “Finals” tournament. A very huge honour in the minor hockey system across all of North America.
After winning their opening game in dramatic fashion, 2-1 in a shootout over Douro, the boys went on to fall short Friday evening 2-0 vs Wingham. “We were flat. Plain Flat,” said Brennan Brown, Head Coach. The game was not pretty as the bounces were just not falling Cayuga’s direction. To guarantee a spot in Saturday’s semi final, the boys needed to win their contest against fellow DD team, Southwest Bullets.
“The Bullets have an impressive record with only losing 1 game in their league this year,” Brown noted. “We knew they would be strong competition. Especially since there is a good chance we will see them in the OMHA Playoffs.” Impressive record or not, Cayuga got out to an early lead in the first period. Four goals in 8 minutes chased their starting goalie out of the net. The boys remained focused and would power through to a 4-3 win despite Southwest coming on strong. “Just like we thought, Southwest came to play hockey. Playoffs will be interesting if the two of us meet up,” added Coach Brown.
The semi final game pitted the Cayuga Stars against the Minto Mad Dogs. Minto, another team with an impressive record (35-3-2 / GF 173 GA 57) got the scoring started early, going up 3-1 after two periods. Although Cayuga controlled the puck, and had it deep in Minto’s end for a majority of the game it was the Mad Dog’s goaltending that proved to be a problem for the Stars. When the game ended, the scoreboard read 4-2 in favour of Minto, who added an empty net marker late in the remaining seconds of the game.
“We aren’t mad. We’re disappointed. It’s tough to see the boys out play, and dominate a team but still end up on the losing end. That being said, we are very proud of this team and want them to continue carrying this confidence and great play heading into playoffs. If they play like they did on the weekend, we know we’ll be successful this post season,” said Brown. Hard practices, and dry land training are in store for the boys over the next two weeks as they wait to see who they will open their OMHA playoffs against.
The coaching staff wishes to thank all of the parents and players for a successful tournament this past weekend. "Great job boys, you've made us and Cayuga Minor Hockey very proud."