Dec 04, 2013 | sbaia | 2719 views
Erie North Shore Storm Peewee Majors – 11/29/13 to 12/01/13
TEAM CANADA aka STORM PEEWEE MAJORS WIN THE NATIONS CUP TOURNAMENT!!!
A fantastic weekend as the Storm represents Canada at the Nations Cup tournament!
U.S. Thanksgiving weekend the Storm travelled to Rochester Hills Michigan to play in the Nations Cup tournament. The division they played in consisted of 8 U.S. teams and 8 Canadian teams competing against each other in round robin play. The teams would then be ranked according to outcome and would play on Sunday for the Nations Cup. The team met up at the Drury Inn Thursday night in time to take advantage of the free drinks and snacks (Thanks Lisa! Great hotel choice!). Some brave souls set out for the Black Friday sales and the rest relaxed at the hotel preparing for the busy day ahead.
Friday morning the team and their families filled up at the free breakfast, enjoying waffles, eggs, biscuits & gravy and lots of other food & drinks, then headed off to the Mount Clemens Ice Arena for game one!
11/29/13 – Game 1 - Storm vs. Downriver Jets
Friday morning the Storm aka Team Canada were visitors against the Downriver Jets. The team received their Team Canada jerseys and socks and quickly dressed for game 1. They proudly skated on the ice determined to represent their country well! Both teams played a very physical game resulting in lots of penalties and powerplay opportunities. Just when it looked like the first period would end in a draw Team USA slipped one past goalie Connor Axford while on a 5 on 3 powerplay to get on the board. Connor was determined that this would be their one and only goal of the game and Team Canada backed him up! The second and third periods saw the Canadian players come to life as they scored four unanswered goals! Daniel Price started things off scoring on a pass from Owen Stannard. Next up Kristian Pelling put the puck in the net assisted by Austin Marr. Ethan Litster got the next one with help from Owen Stannard. And finally five minutes before the final buzzer Ryan Mucha got an unassisted goal giving Team Canada a 4-1 victory! The refs were very generous with the penalties and at one point during the first period our penalty box girl Sarah Misiasz had her hands full with four players in the box! Team Canada outshot Team USA 29-17 and goalie Conner Axford did a fantastic job defending the net! Game MVP was awarded to Owen Stannard for his great work setting up two goals! Great start to the tournament Team Canada!!!
11/29/13 – Game 2 - Storm vs. Michigan Jaguars
Friday afternoon the Storm/Team Canada were the home team against the Michigan Jaguars. Fresh off their victory from the morning game the team was ready to add another win for their country. Once again the refs were determined to fill up the game sheet with penalty calls, resulting in a staggering 23 penalties between the two teams and the head coach for the Americans getting ejected from the game. Team Canada with goalie Nate Jacobs in net tried to ignore all the drama and just played some great hockey. The first period ended scoreless as both teams tried to solve the goalies. The second period was a different story as Ethan Litster shot one past the US goalie off a pass from Kristian Pelling. Owen Stannard then added another for Team Canada assisted by Daniel Price. Team USA got on the board with a powerplay goal but then Ryan Mucha answered the goal one second before the period buzzer with help from Mitchell Renaud. Going into the third Team Canada was not even close to finishing off the U.S. team. One minute into the period Ethan Litster got his second of the game assisted by Adrian Ridsdale, and then went on to get the hat trick scoring off a pass from Robbie Brush. Robbie then got one of his own unassisted, and 17 seconds before the final buzzer Austin Marr also got an unassisted goal, giving Team Canada a 7-1 victory over the U.S. Canada outshot the U.S. 27-11 and goalie Nate made some fantastic saves keeping the U.S. tally to 1. The MVP selected for game 2 was Austin Marr for helping set up plays and scoring the final goal! Another great win for Team Canada!!!
Right after the game the team and their families gathered for a pizza dinner at the arena and then proceeded to the Whirlyball arena down the road for some great fun and excitement! The Storm/Team Canada players were divided into four teams and played a mini tournament while the fans sat back and watched the games while enjoying a few beverages! The resulting games were as much fun to watch as they were to play, with the kids taking over the microphone to provide play by play colour commentary of all the action! Finally the winning team of Coach Ken, Ted, Kristian, Ryan & Trent received the grand prize – giant tins of popcorn! With two games left to play the families took over with the women against the men. The men took advantage of the women being so exhausted after all that late night Black Friday shopping and managed to barely come out ahead scoring the win. After the last game everyone headed back to the hotel and gathered in the party room which was quickly converted into a mini sticks arena and bar. All in all it was a very successful and funfilled day for the team and their families!
11/30/13 – Game 3 - Storm vs. Orchard Lake United Blue
Saturday morning the team travelled back to Mt. Clemens to face Orchard Lake United Blue as the visiting team. Team Canada showed their strength and integrity by playing a penalty free game while their opponents were sent to the box a total of seven times! In the first period the Canadians had several powerplay opportunities but were unable to solve the goalie and the period ended scoreless. In the second the flood gates opened as Team Canada scored not one…not two…but six unanswered goals! Ryan Mucha started it off scoring an unassisted powerplay goal four minutes into the period. Adrian Ridsdale was up next scoring off a pass from KayCyn Hernandez. Daniel Price got goal number three assisted by Ryan Mucha. Ethan Litster scored the fourth goal with help from Daniel Price. Daniel also helped Kristian Pelling get goal number five. Finally Austin Marr scored goal number six off a pass from Robbie Brush. A very productive second period for Team Canada! In the third period the powerful Canadian defense kicked into action to prevent any scoring by the U.S. team and the game ended with another Team Canada victory of 6-0. Goalie Connor Axford earned the shut-off through his many fantastic saves, stopping breakaways and deflecting rebounds! Canada outshot the U.S. once again, this time by 31-18! MVP for game 3 was Daniel Price who earned a goal and 2 assists! Another great victory for Team Canada!
11/30/13 – Game 4 - Storm vs. Monroe County Eagles
Saturday night the Storm/Team Canada were back at the arena as the home team against Monroe County Eagles. This was the last game in the round robin series and so far the Canadian teams were crushing the U.S. teams! The Storm/Team Canada were on a roll and didn’t waste time getting on the board in the first period. Kristian Pelling started off the scoring assisted by Rebecca Misiasz and Mitchell Renaud. Soon after that goal Adrian Ridsdale put the puck in the net with help from Trent Pickle and Ethan Litster. Goal number three was scored by Daniel Price off a pass from Owen Stannard. In the second period The U.S. team attempted a comeback getting a shot past goalie Nate Jacobs, But Team Canada answered that goal when Robbie Brush put the puck between the pipes assisted by Daniel Price and Trent Pickle. In the third the U.S. team managed to squeak one more past goalie Nate but once again the Canadians took it back with Daniel Price scoring off a pass from Rebecca Misiasz. The team played smart drawing only one penalty in the game as the U.S. fought off several including a ten minute misconduct. The game ended in another victory for Team Canada with a score of 5-2! Canada had an amazing 50 shots on net and goalie Nate Jacobs did a great job as he faced 14 U.S. shots, almost standing on his head to stop some of them! A fantastic end to the round robin portion of the tournament, with our Team Canada scoring 22 times with only 4 goals against!! These kids are on fire!!
12/01/13 – Game 5 Final - Storm vs. Columbus Capitals
Sunday afternoon the team went back to Mt. Clemens one last time to play in the finals for Team Canada. The Storm was part of a three way tie for first place, but when all the tie-breakers were calculated they were bumped down to third by only a fraction of a point. The Canadian teams had totally dominated the round robin games and as a result all the teams would start their games on the powerplay! The Canadian teams in fourth through eighth place had already played and won all their games, giving Canada 15 of the 19 points needed for the tournament victory. There were three games left to play, with this game worth 6 points. Connor Axford took his place in net and Team Canada hit the ice one last time. The fans went crazy as Kristian Pelling scored the first goal of the game assisted by Adrian Ridsdale and Rebecca Misiasz! Unfortunately that would be it for Team Canada as the late nights at the hotel seemed to finally take their toll on the team. Plus they had to deal with a potty mouthed referee who tried his best to throw the kids off their game as he gave Team Canada eight out of the eleven game penalties, allowing the U.S. team to score five times. So while the Storm/Team Canada lost this game 5-1 it didn’t really matter; and it also didn’t matter when the Essex /Team Canada team also lost their game, because the last Canadian team to play did win their game giving Canada more than enough points needed for the ultimate tournament victory!!! Two MVP’s were selected for game 5, Ryan Mucha and Kristian Pelling, and goalie Connor Axford was great in net as he faced 28 shots from the U.S. team. Great teamwork Storm!
Team Canada 2001 won the Nations Cup and all the teams dressed proudly in their Team Canada jerseys immediately headed to center ice where they received medals, banners and posed for team pictures with the Nations Cup trophy! It was a very exciting and rewarding experience for these kids and the smiles on their faces told the whole story! The memories of this experience will stay with them forever!
A special thanks to the fans who came out to cheer the team on! U.S. friends and family of Austin, Owen & Rebecca came to many of the games and events and bravely cheered for Team Canada rather than their home country! Their support was much appreciated!
The entire team played great hockey this weekend and did a fantastic job representing their country. Our two goalies deserve a huge amount of credit for the success the team had during this tournament. Both Connor and Nate made some unbelievable saves which had the other teams scored could have changed the entire direction of the game! The team is very lucky to have two such talented and skilled netminders defending the net! Fantastic work out there Connor & Nate! Congratulations also to Kristian, Robbie, KayCyn, Ethan, Owen, Ryan, Trent, Austin, Mitchell, Adrian, Franco, Daniel and Rebecca for all their hard work, skilled play and great sportsmanship this weekend. We are all very proud of you, and so is Canada!!!