I forgot to post the actual Newspaper Article

From the OHF weekend, here is the article that was written in the Cambridge Times.

The Hespeler Shamrocks were hoping history would repeat itself. In the process, they made a bit of their own.

Trying to duplicate the major atom A Shamrocks improbable win in 1998 – the last time a Hespeler team hosted a provincial tournament –the bantam A squad overcame their underdog status to win the Ontario Hockey Federation title on Sunday, beating the Greater Toronto Hockey League champion Duffield Devils 4-1 in the final at the Hespeler Arena.

Ousted in Ontario Minor Hockey Association quarterfinals, just like the major atom team 11 years ago, the Shamrocks faced the winner of four different hockey organizations. Things didn’t get any easier when they stumbled through the round robin with a 1-2-1 record, placing them in fourth after four games, ahead of only the winless Northern Ontario Hockey League champion Hearst Lumber Kings.

The Shamrocks then did what many thought was impossible and edged the previously unbeaten OMHA champion Barrie Colts – who easily handled the Shamrocks the day before in the final round robin game 6-1 –in the semifinal by a score of 3-2. The Shamrocks jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead and held off the Colts to make the final.

Hespeler completed the day by beating a strong Duffield team that finished their regular season with a 36-0-0 record and beat the Waterloo Wolves 3-2 in double overtime in the semifinals.

Few gave the Shamrocks a chance of beating Barrie, but they rode that high right through the finals.

“We were the underdogs in every game here. We knew that if we just played our game and take it to them we have a chance against every team,” said Shamrocks captain Ben Poort, who scored what turned out to be the eventual tournament winner in the second period.

“We have a great bunch of guys here and it was a lot of fun.”

One of the big factors for the Shamrocks was the play of goalie Shayne Connors. The big tender shut down a powerhouse Colts offence in the semifinals, including two big saves with 30 seconds left and Barrie pressing for the equalizer. He was just as steady in the final, not allowing the Devils to get any momentum.

“I think my performance in the semifinals helped me prepare for the finals,” said Connors, who was deservedly named tournament MVP.

“I think I had a good tournament overall, but the team played very well in front of me. I stepped up my game a lot. I didn’t expect for us to come this far in the tournament at all.”

Head coach Will Coros said prior to the tournament that the team’s strength was its defence and that shone through in the playoff round.

“They played the game plan,” Coros said.

“Our defence was tough all the way through the tournament and did what they had to do to be successful. Goaltending and ‘D’ is what got us here, and that got us through the championship game.

“I’ve been wanting this for them since the day we knew we won the bid. I knew they had it in them, it was just difficult to get them to believe it themselves.”

Coros added that, all along, the initial goal was to make the playoff round and then see what happens.

“Anything can happen in a one-game series. We played our hearts out against Barrie and the momentum was there. They wanted it; they were hungry and they went out and got it,” he said.

It also didn’t hurt that the Shamrocks saw the Devils cheering when they beat Barrie. Duffield beat Hespeler 2-1 in the round robin, but lost to Barrie 4-2. They must have thought the hosts were the better of two evils. Guess again.

“Yeah, we knew they wanted to play us instead of Barrie,” said Poort.

“So we thought, OK, come and play us and we’ll beat ya.”

The Shamrocks did just that by scoring in every period and building a lead they would never relinquish.

Hespeler came out with some jump to start the game, but weren’t rewarded until they had a 5-on-3 power play, as things got a little chippy. Ryan Goncalves took a pass from Tyler Garside at the bottom of the faceoff circle and beat goalie Conor Lewis from a bad angle.

The Shamrocks got into penalty trouble after that, but managed to kill off four straight penalties, including a 5-on-3 disadvantage for almost two minutes.

T h e Shamrocks didn’t quit though and i n c re a s e d the lead with teams playing 4- on-4 when Poort found a wobbling puck in the slot and ripped it off the post and in.

Hespeler made it 3-0 in early in the third when Jake Loro’s point shot found the top corner, but that only seemed to inspire the Devils to play desperate hockey.

The Devils pelted Connors and finally beat him on a power play with less than six minutes left, but the Shamrocks got that one back 50 seconds later when Talton Conway redirected Stephen Pope’s pass by Lewis.

The Shamrocks had a relatively easy time holding the lead after that, as the frustrated Devils spent the remainder of the game shorthanded.

OHF Champions? No Way!!!

It's hard to see this, but this is an emotional photograph taken by Coach Will the day after the OHF Finals. Last weekend was an unbvelievable rush for everyone on Ben's Bantam A Shamrocks team. As host of the OHF's we were not expecting to win a single game, as we were playing against all of the Champion teams from the four leagues around Ontario.

The round robins were not as bad as we had thought they would be. Waterloo came out flat (probably overconfident) and we took them 3-0 in our weekend opener. We then tied the NOMHA Hearst HLK team 2-2, but seriously could have won that game as well. Saturday was a different story. The Duffield Devil's, with their season record of 36-0-0 were touted as one of the best teams in the province. They beat us 2-1 (Ben was sick and did not have his best game). In the afternoon, we were trounced by the #1 seed Barrie Colts. They are a fantastic squad.

Through much prayer, I believe, the very unbelieaveble and unexpected happend on Sunday morning. An overconfident Barrie team first cheered and watched Duffield beat Waterloo in triple overtime. They had beaten Duffield earlier in the tournament, as well as in a tourney in Lake Placid. They were not even thinking about the fact that they had a small semifinal game agaiunst the Host Shamrocks. For the first time this season, our coach seriously shortened the bench -- 2 lines. Ben started with Talton and Pope, then Robbie centered Ryan and Garside. My very own Benny Poort set the pace and came out flying. Not long into the first period, he came straight out of the corner, shot, and then tucked his own rebound in the far left corner of the net. The team just kept going from there, and we were up 3-0 by the end of the first.

Our goalie, Shane Connors was stellar, to say the least, and we managed to hold the Colts to 2 goals in the 2nd period, and shut them out in the third! Shane made some unbelievable saves in the dying minutes to secure our birth in the finals, against all odds, and against the Duffield Devils. The parent, coaches, and players on the Barrie Colts may have deserved better. As I said, they are an outstanding squad! But they picked the wrong team to disregard, and the wrong game to lose.

On to Duffield, in the finals. Ryan potted a nice goal on a pass out front by Robbie (even though the paper said Garside). We ended the first up 1-0. Late in the second, Ben spun around and fired a loose puck from the high slot, hard, off the right post and in! This turned out to be the winning goal. Anthonmy scored the third goal with a slapshot that just eluded (and deflected) off the goalie's glove. Duffield came back and made it 3-1 a little while later, but Talton's deflection of Pope's pass about 1 minute later took the wind out of Duffield's sails. We went on to do the impossible, and win GOLD in the All Ontario OHF Championships.

The following is how I will leave things for today: