Nov 19, 2018 | Karin Stockwell | 94 views
Tournament in the Hometown of The Great One
Three games in 24 hours – just the kind of high-intensity, back-to-back,
continuous action the TCDMHA Power Workers’ Union Midget LL Rebels like, and
just what they got at the Eric Gaukel Memorial Tournament in Wayne Gretzky's hometown of Brantford this
past weekend.
The Rebels opened the scoring just a little over a minute into Game 1 on Friday afternoon with a goal by Pearce Lacey from Talmon Ash and Landon Heathers. The good guys – backed up by netminder, Devon Early – then held off their opponents, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Wolves, until midway through the second. The tie would stand until the last half of the third when the Wolves pulled ahead. The Rebels battled hard to tie the score, but an empty net goal with 40 seconds left put the game out of reach. Final score: 3-1 for the Wolves.
Game 2 was a mirror image of the first – this time with the Rebels coming out on top 3-1 against the Thornton Tigers. Jason Rudolph-MacLeod backed up the team who put relentless pressure on the Tigers to earn the win. Snipers for the Rebels included Jake Hartman (assisted by Duncan Martin and Jack Kivell), Carson Torrie (assisted by Josh Currie), and Chris Hardman who plowed through the Tigers’ team to put the insurance marker into Thornton’s empty net.
The win put the Rebels into a tie for second place with one game left to play. The top two teams in each division would advance to the semi-finals, so winning this game was critical. Their opponent, the East Gwillimbury Eagles, were in the same position, and the Rebels found themselves smack-dab in the middle of a heated battle vying for that coveted second place spot. After close to two periods of back-and-forth intense hockey, the Rebels broke the scoreless deadlock in the dying moments of the second period with a goal by Landon Heathers from Jack Scott, and then added a second at the beginning of the third when Josh Currie put one in the net, also assisted by Jack Scott. Two unlucky bounces gave the Eagles the opportunity to tie it up in the third, and the nail-biting drama amped up as the clock ticked down.
Then, a questionable call late in the third put the Rebels down a man with just over two minutes left in the game. Their opponents capitalized on the man-advantage and scored the go-ahead goal at the 1:39 mark. The Rebels fought valiantly to put the tying marker on the board, even pulling goalie Devon Early to give them the man-advantage, but could not penetrate the Eagles’ defence. The final score would stand at 3-2 and the Rebels’ run for the playoffs came to an end.
Special credit goes to the Rebels’ goaltending team of Devon Early and Jason Rudolph-MacLeod who virtually turned themselves inside-out to make key saves throughout the tournament to keep the scores close. Congratulations to all the Rebels who represented TCD with some fine hockey this weekend!