Apr 01, 2014 | JOwen | 840 views
A SEASON TO REMEMBER ...
We are coming to the end of a very successful Cambridge Major Pee Wee MD Hawks season. It all started just after Labour Day with team tryouts and will culminate with the Alliance Championships in St. Catharines on April 11th, 12th and 13th.
The team entered 4 tournaments on the season and had a great deal of success.
The first tournament was in The John MacDonald tournament in St. Catharines. The Hawks earned 4 wins and a tie on their way to the Championship round. In the final game, the Hawks faced the North London Nationals and a tight game was won by the Nationals, 1 to 0 on a power play goal with less than 2 minutes to play.
The Hawks had a more difficult time in their home tournament in Cambridge in November. The Hawks stumbled with only one win against 3 losses. They were knocked out by the Waterloo Ice Wolves, the eventual tournament Champion. This would be Waterloo's only win on the season versus the Hawks against 3 wins and a tie.
At Christmas, the Hawks headed down to Brantford for the Wayne Gretzky International tournament. The team won 3 games and one loss before facing the Stoney Creek Warriors in the playoff round. Stoney Creek came out on top 2 to 1 on a disputed overtime goal and went on to win the tournament.
The signature event of the Hawks season was the January Motown Cup in Detroit which featured a 3 to 0 shutout versus the Paris Wolfback at Joe Louis Arena. The Hawks also faced their first place, league rivals, the Kitchener Rangers in Detroit, beating the Rangers for the first time 2 - 0. The Hawks put it all together in this tournament winning all 5 games by a combined score of 17 to 4. In the final against the Muskegon AA Chiefs the Hawks won it all in a shootout. Bedlam ensued.
In mid January, the regular season portion of the Hawks schedule ended with the Hawks in 3rd place with a record of 13-4-5, 2 points behind the Hamilton Tigers and 3 points behind Kitchener. The Hawks advanced to the Tier one portion of the Alliance MD schedule for the first time in their history.
In the Tier 1 Round Robin the Hawks finished in first place with a record of 6-1-3, one point ahead of Hamilton. The Hawks were rewarded for this accomplishment by being named the Alliance Tier 1 League Champions and advanced to the Alliance East / Central Playdowns.
The semi-finals of the playdowns pitted the Hawks against their arch rivals from Kitchener. Game #1 at MacIntosh ended in a tie and game #2 was a 3-1 Cambridge defeat at Parkdale. One more loss or a tie and the Hawks would be eliminated. Game #3 was the Hawks finest hour as they soundly defeated Kitchener 4 to 0 at Preston Arena. The 4th game rubber match was held at the Sportsworld complex in Kitchener and the Hawks gritted out a 1 to nothing victory.
The finals would be against the Hamilton Tigers and in game #1 at MacIntosh the Tigers came out roaring with a 6 to 2 beat-down. The Hawks gathered themselves and reversed Hamilton's fortunes at Mohawk with a 2 - 0 shutout. So it all came down to one final "winner take all" game at Galt Arena. The Tigers were the better team that day, winning 4 to 1 and were proclaimed overall Alliance East / Central Champions.
The Hawks overall record was 35-14-10. They scored 156 goals and gave up a paltry 86 goals in 59 games. Their goals against average of 1.46 was the best of any team in Cambridge Minor Hockey. The Hawks earned an unheard of 21 shutouts - incredible goaltending, defence and back-checking all year long. The Hawks really worked hard and gritted out virtually everyone of those 35 victories.
There is still one more event on the team calendar for this season. The Alliance MD Championship in St. Catharines which features the top 2 teams from the East/Central division and the top 2 teams from the West division, who will play a 5 game series to determine the overall Alliance MD Champion for 2014. 18 teams began the season back in September and only 4 remain: the Sarnia Jr. Sting, the North London Nationals, the Hamilton Tigers and the Cambridge Hawks.