Space Connects lose in the Final

Sunday was a jam-packed day for hockey and the Brits shone brightly.  Steve Lee, Tom Soar, Callum Bowley, and Will Weldon progressed into the finals by an excellent defensive display in the semi-final morning game.  Jade and Ross lost this game due to some missed empty nets by some of our youngsters.  Ross has be superb and improves every day.  When I asked Jade quietly  what he thought of him he said Ross has some offensive upside as well which I was encouraged about.  Jade really has been head and shoulders above all players in the tourney and is now a real force (minus the 15 pounds he has dropped from last season).  Between he and Ross, they have dismantled their opposition in the first 3 games but today just couldn't find the back of the net.  4 of their original players failed to show so Lacho, Haywood, and myself joined the losing cause - again, Goaltending was unspectacular.  I was considering dressing up a scare-crow in Goalie equipment for a moment.

The other semi-final pitted Bully, Nortz, Soar, and Wardy against the group of juniors.  I'm so proud of their performance.  They stood up so well for themselves and never gave up an inch - a credit to their country.  I even heard some, "why don't you go back to England" remarks from a frustrated bunch of "so-called" superstars.  Wardy eventually got kicked out of the match for stick-work (it was a minor infraction but the ref wanted to make a point that he didn't want the game to escalate into violence).  Sam drove the net so hard and showed a much improved "presence" and mean-streak which encouraged him to present in his games this season.  By this he created a ton of space for himself to use his skills.  Nortz was composed on the puck as usual and has an abundance of skill for a young defender.  I spoke on Soar yesterday and he was good again.

In the finals, Steve Lee proved to be a dominant presence on the blue-line.  He bumped a guy early to show he was there to play and when that player responded Steve dropped his gloves and was prepared to "defend" himself.  His opponent cowered and Steve had mercy on him.  Other than that Steve proved to be more than capable at making strong out-let passes to his forwards.  In the end, the Juniors were too much on the day as Steve, Callum, Soar, and Will just didn't have enough of a supporting cast to compete.  The other guys on their team were AAA 16 year olds and just not up to the task.

We're looking forward to next Sunday and a potential re-match against the Juniors.  All the Brits will play this time and I sincerely don't like their chances against our boys!  So, we shall see next week but to be this confident now going into the match against some of Canada's best shows just how good of a group has assembled here which bodes well for the Panthers in the upcoming seasons.

PS - My son helped me to name all the teams in the tourney.  Most rhymed with the team sponsor and when I asked him what to call my Neilson Athletics team he replied, "Space Connects".  A great name...

PSS - I know I failed to mention all the boys individually but I promise you - they were good and notable too.  I'm just tired and my fingers hurt...