Bantam LL#2 Pelham Panthers- Champions at the Ayr Challenge
The Bantam LL#2 Panthers travelled to Ayr to play in the Ayr Challenge. We entered this tournament with a winning streak and tried to use that as momentum to carry us deep into the tournament. Our first game ended with us winning 2-0. We then played Clarkson, a team we knew from a few years back and we thought we were ready for these guys. They caught us off guard a little and beat us in shots and on the score board resulting in a 4-2 loss. That put a little fear in our team and we wanted a rematch using that loss as fuel to get us back into the winning side of things again!!
We faced Lindsay and beat them 5-3, putting us in 3rd place. We had to play the 2nd place team in the semi-finals which was Thornton, who was also beaten by Clarkson. Thornton wanted a rematch in the finals as well as us. Our semi-final game with them was intense, filled with penalty after penalty for both teams, but we were able to beat them 2-0. That gave us exactly what we wanted, a rematch against Clarkson!!
In the championship game we knew that we had match the speed and aggression that Clarkson had. we wanted a fast hard first shift to send a message and we got just that and a bit more! Only 44 seconds into the game, our winger stepped over the blueline letting a high hard slap shot go that found the twine. Clarkson fought back hard but we played them pretty aggressively and tried to limit their scoring opportunities. It was a clean game that had them pulling their goalie with 1:45 left in the 3rd. They did get a few chances in our end but could not beat our goalie. On one of our clearing attempts we were able to pick up the puck in the neutral zone and skate it in depositing the puck into the open net, giving us another 2-0 win and making us the champs.
Our goalies both shared in this shutout and made some very timely saves to keep us on the winning side of the game.
Very proud of these kids, what a great weekend!!!
