Minor atom Hawks sweep tournament in Stoney Creek

October 27, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Pino Agostino
What a game!
The Caledon minor atom AE Hawks compiled a 6-0 record to take the title in the 32nd Ace Bailey Tournament in Stoney Creek.
The Hawks were down 6-2 with one period left to the Oakridge Aeros in the championship game. The beginning was rough, and the Aeros played fantastic and were quick, strong and determined to take the gold.
The Hawks didn’t give up. With one time-out left, and 15 minutes to play in the third, the Hawks scored a third goal with 14:36 left on the clock to make the score 6-3. There was a quick line change and the Hawks scored again with 12:53 remaining to make it 6-4. At this point, they were not celebrating goals as the Hawks lined up at center ice. The puck was dropped and the play moved toward the net, and there was another goal after only 20 seconds to tighten the score to 6-5.
The game was getting tense, and the Hawks catching up had made it surreal.
At this point, the coaches were talking about pulling the goalie with two minutes left in the third period, but the Hawks scored again to tie things up with 1:55 remaining. Timeout was called by the Hawks’ bench, knowing that if they were to tie the game, they would be faced with sudden-death overtime, and then penalty shots.
The coaches decided to go for it and not conserve their players or energy for the extra time. The puck dropped, and after 32 seconds of play, the Hawks got a goal, scored by Nicolas Corsi, assisted by James Agostino and Bryce Prieur.
The arena was in awe, the fans were jumping up and down and no one could sit at this point.
With 1:23 remaining in the period, the battle was on, for time just couldn’t move fast enough. The final seconds were being counted out by the players on the bench — “9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!”
The Hawks were victorious with the greatest comeback in all their experiences. These boys fought hard, they made up for the four-goal deficit and were determined to win.
Thanks to all the players, the families that brought them there and the coaches for all their time!
A big thanks to Stoney Creek for hosting a wonderful tournament as the team looks forward to visiting again in the not so distant future.