Dec 14, 2014 | goldfield | 224 views
Lessons in Sportsmanship via Midland Tie
Apologies for the late game report(s)..it was a long week with the happiest of endings
Oro was home to Midland last Saturday, playing host to an unlucky and very desperate Midland team
We learned pregame the injury bug had hit the Centennials and that they were down three players including their Captain and excellent young goaltender Jake.
We warned our gang that Midland would be hungry to stay in contention for the A division finals,and boy were they.
Still we found the scoreboard mid first period on a hustle play by Jacob, assisted from Ty and Connor
The Busy Bee line was skating hard and stirring the nest every shift they found ice together.
Oro wasn't playing their best hockey,but still controlled the flow of the game first period
Midland evened things up early second on a nice goal from their Assistant Wyatt,but our counterpart Doogie returned the favour twice over with back to back jacks, assists to Big Ben and Chaser(2)
Wyatt again found paydirt late second to give Midland a surge
3-2 after 2
I warned the team on the bench that Midland had been charging in wave after wave...and this game would be won by the team that wants it more
That team on this day was Midland
Harry had a big rush with patented ripper past the diminutive Atom goalie who has likely never seen rubber move so quickly. 4-2
Young Andrew filled in for the Centennials with great courage and played one heck of a game.
He played an assertive high crease goaltending style that challenged/thwarted some of the GBTLL's best snipers time and again all game long. Great backwards/lateral movement on dekes was also on display.
A tip of the hat young man..and player of the game honours.
We took two early penalties and killed them very effectively,which is often a swoon to the short handed team.
Midland was undaunted and continued to pressure the puck.
Teghan brought his team to within one with a sharp play followed by Marshall who ripped it low glove on Justin
to tie the game at 4's with 5mins to go
Our team had played loose defense trading chances with Midland up two goals and paid the price...the challenge now was to hold on as Midland had momentum
Colt was engaged in a hard puck battle at Midland blueline, desperately trying to hold the zone and not turn the puck over for a breakaway.
As both players fell to the ice he received a serious penalty that was a mystery to our coaches,as nobody saw it that way....we would learn later that included the Midland bench
The two teams continued to trade chances and at @ the two minute mark, Marshall rang the post for what easily could have been the winner. I think Justin got a piece of that one or it could have been over.
A final,last gasp attempt saw Aidan push the puck over the line right on the buzzer...it couldn't have been any closer.
The ref waived his arms and nobody complained..it was an appropriate end to a highly competitive match
Post game our focus immediately turned to one very sad player...Colt.
As all who played with us last year,and many have learned this season; this is one exceptional young man
Quiet yet highly competitive,he plays the game to the best of his ability shift after shift.
An intelligent,easily taught, zero maintenance player... any coach's dream
Midland Coach Sean Tomlinson was eager to defend our player and did so post game.
I won't go into all the details, but suffice to say that without Mr Tomlinson's selfless efforts postgame and very late that night, we would likely be without one of our team's on ice leaders for some time.
It is so refreshing to see this commendable behaviour in our game
Competitive advantages cast aside, The Midland Coach felt compelled to simply do the right thing...just as he saw it.
We cannot thank the Sean enough and through his insistence made a young man's Christmas come early
Midland is still in tough to make the A division pool of 5 and will likely have to run the table without a loss;
a daunting task
If they continue to play for Coach Sean like they did that Sunday afternoon and the hockey karma genies are kind...it is a distinct possibility
There is little more that would make us happier than to meet them there for one more battle
Final;
Oro 4 - Midland 4