The Cambridge Major Pee Wee MD Hawks concluded their season on the weekend as finalist in the Alliance Provincial MD Tier 1 Championships. The Hawks began the weekend by taking out their rivals from Hamilton with a convincing 6 to 3 victory. They followed that up with a 2 to 2 tie vs Sarnia and a 6 to 2 drubbing of West division champion North London. In a hard fought and exciting final the Hawks fell 3 to 1 to the Hamilton Tigers, thus concluding the season as Provincial runner-ups.
The Hawks overall record on the season was 37-16-11. They scored 171 goals and gave up a paltry 97 goals in 64 games. Their goals against average of 1.52 was the best of any team in Cambridge Minor Hockey. The Hawks earned an unheard of 21 shutouts, highlighted by incredible goaltending, defence and back-checking all year long. The Hawks really worked hard and gritted out virtually everyone of those 37 victories. The dream season concluded with 1 tournament win, 1 tournament finals, a 1st place league finish and 2 Alliance league Championship games.
It all started just after Labour Day with team tryouts and culminated with the Alliance Championship in St. Catharines on April 13th.
The team entered 4 tournaments on the season and had a great deal of success - building on each tournament and getting progressively better as the season drew on.
The first tournament was 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. Six months later, the Hawks would avenge that loss with a 6 to 2 win in the Alliance Championships.
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 had a single 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. Stoney Creek continued their season by becoming the eventual runner-ups for the OMHA AE league crown.
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 pitted the Hawks against the Hamilton Tigers. 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 in game #2 with a 2 - 0 shutout. 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.
These two teams would face each other two more times at the Provincial Championships - with Cambridge winning the round robin game but the Tigers winning the Championship game. These teams faced each other 10 times over the course of the season, with each team winning 5 games a piece.
A very successful season by 17 hard-working young men.
Congratulation to all!