Oct 16, 2013 | Chantal Schneider | 1392 views
Atom A Hawks Open Season With a Tournament Win
The Cambridge Hawks Major Atom A hockey team kicked their season off in style by winning the 36th Annual Essex Early Bird Tournament.
The Hawks started the round robin with 2 convincing wins over Norwich and Essex by scores of 6-1 and 5-2 respectively. Goals were scored by Nic Lirette, Will Matekovic and Xavier Moura with 2 each, with singles to Zach Schneider, Matthew Mueller, Gillis Haskell, Tyler MacGillivary and Dylan Farrow. Assists went to Haskell with 3, Lirette, Moura and Mueller with 2 and MacGillivary, Farrow, Schneider, Liam McGinnis, Kaiden Gignac, Justin Luis and Hunter O’Brien with 1 each.
The Hawks needed a win or tie in their 3rd round robin game against Tecumseh to win their pool. The Hawks fell behind 2-0 in the 2nd period. That score continued until the Hawks scored 2 goals in the last minute of play to pull out the dramatic tie and win the pool. Schneider scored the first goal on assists from Ethan Gill and Luis. The tying goal was scored by MacGillivary.
The semi-final pitted the Hawks against the Windsor Spitfires. The Hawks came out flying and scored 2 goals early only to see Windsor get 1 back on the power play to make the score 2-1 after the 1st period. Cambridge wasn’t going to be denied a birth in the finals as they reeled off the next 5 goals to win convincingly by a 7-1 score. Goalie Benjamin Bates was excellent in the win. Lirette lead the goal scoring with 4 markers, followed by singles for Moura, Farrow and Matekovic. Assists went to Mueller and Farrow with 2, and singles to Haskell, Braeden Tavares, McGinnis, Moura, Jason Green and Gignac.
The finals had the Hawks against the also undefeated Amherstburg Stars. The Hawks finished the 1st period down 1-0 to a strong Stars team. Cambridge rebounded in the 2nd period starting with a goal by Mueller from Tavares and Lirette. The Hawks then scored 2 short handed goals on the same penalty to open up a 3-1 lead. The first shorthanded marker was by Gill from Schneider and the second was by Lirette unassisted. The lead held until Amherstburg scored with exactly 1 minute remaining while on a 2 man advantage. With their goalie pulled and still with the man advantage the, Stars applied applied a lot of pressure in the final minute but were unable to get the equalizer thanks in large part to the outstanding goaltending by Cambridge’s Ashton Moreira. The final score was Cambridge 3, Amherstburg 2.