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:
