Over the weekend the ServiceMaster Restore
U15 A Petes participated in the Bradford Blue & Gold tournament. The Petes
limped into the weekend with several injuries and had only 9 skaters to play
over the weekend.
On Friday the Petes opened the tournament playing their Lakeshore rival Kingston Canadians and put in a solid 4-0 effort. Brody C. was solid in net and earned the shutout for the Petes. Next up was the TNT Tornados where the Petes put in a gutsy effort and pulled out a 4-1 victory again the Petes goaltending was strong as James S. held the fort on many occasions, putting them in a great position heading into Saturday’s play.
On Saturday with the Petes rested up they faced off against the hometown Bradford Bulldogs for a 12.30 game. After a bit of a slow start the Petes found their stride and ended up with a hard fought 5-2 win. After this win the team headed to an arena across town to suit up for a second game in less than two hours, playing this game with only 8 skaters due to an injury vs Bradford. For two periods the Petes played a smart game and found themselves leading 2-1 after two periods. In the third period the Petes were under siege time and time again James S. was a brick wall, and with the fatigue from the whole weekend catching up to these young men. After the final horn went the Petes salvaged a 2-2 tie vs the Newmarket Renegades. This put the Petes into the finals on Sunday afternoon vs. the same Newmarket team which turned out to be a dandy!
Heading into Sunday Peterborough got one skater back into the lineup giving us 9 skaters going into the Championship game, and it turned into a game where you wouldn’t believe it unless you were there! To summarize the game quickly leading up to the third period, the Petes had a player ejection (now 8 skaters) and down 3-0 after Newmarket scored a last second goal in the second period putting the Petes down three. The message going into the third period was “lets just get one” and see where it goes…and that we did. Early in the third the Petes scored two quick goals nineteen seconds apart narrowing the score to 3-2. It was like a wave of energy swept through the Petes line up, we now had a game!
The momentum was short lived…Newmarket scored twenty seconds later extending their lead to 4-2 with just over ten minutes to play in the game. This is where Peterborough dug down to show the heart and the resiliency, we knew we had and the next ten minutes these young men will remember for a long time. Peterborough found their second wind and went to work down low in the Newmarket zone and grinded away until we narrowed the score to 4-3, and now Newmarket was on their heels, and they couldn’t stop the Petes train from rolling! Just over a minute later it was knotted up at 4’s and we were now heading into overtime. That “let’s just get one” turned into four…
Overtime began and the Petes kept their foot on the gas pedal as Tobey S. poked the puck away from the Newmarket defensemen and raced the length of the ice and snapped a shot bar down over the goalie’s blocker hand, and the jubilation of these young men in what they accomplished with a diminished line up was something they, and this coaching staff will cherish and learn from as this season goes on.
Our heartfelt gratitude to these young athletes and what they accomplished over this weekend was nothing short of ‘OUTSTSANDING”
The saying that adversity doesn’t build character…it reveals it…..WE found out Sunday we have a ton of CHARACTER on this U15 A team!
CONGRATS BOYS!