Feb 17, 2015 | John Fullerton | 1528 views
Minor Bantam MD wins their 4th Tournament
The Cambridge Minor Bantam MD Hawks have done it again, winning the "Presidential Power Play" tournament in Rochester New York. The MD Hawks completed an unprecedented season sweep of their tournaments, having previously won the "Ace Bailey" in Stoney Creek, the "Cambridge MD Festival" and the "Gretzky International Tournament" in Brantford. The Hawks earned this tournament win the same way they won the previous three - with sound defense, a talented offense and stingy goaltending but most of all - through hard work. This team fights for every inch of the ice and simply wears out the opposition.
The Hawks played a 4 game round robin against teams from Geneseo New York, Allentown Pennsylvania, Milton Ontario and Perinton New York
In game one against the Livingston Blues A (Geneseo) , the Hawks shut-out the Blues 2 to 0, with goals coming from Adam Tunnicliffe (Jace Smith) and Branden Gawel (Smith and Anthony Russo). Brody Merritt put together a 14 shot shut-out.
Game #2's opponent was the Lehigh Valley Phantoms A (Allentown) and the Hawk offense delivered a 5 to 1 drubbing. Goals were scored by Jalen Wegener, Russo, Gawel (Tunnicliffe), and 2 by Josh Loewen (Christain Ferraro). Pierce Waigh was solid between the pipes.
The third game featured a match against the OMHA Milton AE Winterhawks and this game resulted in a 3 to 1 victory. Hawks scorers were Ferraro (Loewen), Alex Verbeem and Nicholas Taylor (Alex Fullerton).
The only loss of the weekend was to the hometown Perinton Blades A by a score of 3 to 2 in a penalty marred game that saw the Hawks serve 16 minutes of time in the penalty box. Hawk goals were scored by Wegener (Tunnicliffe) and Ferraro.
Overall for the weekend, the Hawks only surrendered 5 goals in 5 games as the Hawk defense of Russo, Chris Skilton, Trent Wheeler, Joe Lemieux, Liam Turchin and Camden Naylor turned back the opposition at their blue-line time after time.
In the finals, the Hawks faced their opening game opponent, the Livingston Blues and the Hawks came out on top with another 2 to nothing victory. Loewen stepped over the blue line mid-way through the first period and ripped a shot into the top left corner for goal number 1. Mid-way through the second period a hard charging Tunnicliffe beat his man to the puck in the offensive zone, fired the puck at the net and Gawel was standing in the slot to deposit the rebound into the empty net for goal number 2. Two goals were all Merritt would need as he turned away 13 chances by the Blues for his second shutout of the weekend. With less than a minute to go, the Blues pulled their goalie to try to generate some offense but the Hawks defence and backcheck, led by Team Captain Smith held off the attack. Minor Bantam MD were then proclaimed champions for the fourth time this season.