Nov 14, 2012 | SGraham | 853 views
Atom AE Otters Host Home Tournament
On November 9 , 10 , 11th the Atom AE Otters welcomed 9 teams to town for their host tournament. All games were played on the Jack Bionda ice surface.
Trying to play all the games on one ice surface was certainly a challenge but Team Manager Shara Graham and the Otters parents, pulled it off . Well done everyone.
Despite being upset about missing school, the Otters hit the ice Friday at 12:30 with a game against Oro.
The Otters put the hammer down immediately for the first 5 minutes with increased pressure until Taylor Cottrill scored from a feed by Jack Lockwood. Then within 39 seconds ,Wes Farnsworth dug the puck out of a scrum and fed it to Cole Patey who scored and on the next shift Patey buried one, top shelf, unassisted. With under one minute left Braydon Holman scored for a 4-1 lead after the first. The second period saw Patey score his third and then while shorthanded, Nathan Markle scored from Lockwood for a 6-1 lead after two. The Otters added two more in the third with Holman finishing a Lockwood pass and Cottrill scored with a minute left for a 8-2 final. Owen Buczek and Cole Frasier shared the win in net.
Game two, only two hours later ,saw the Otters face a tough Temiscaming squad. First period was back and forth with Cottrill showing great hustle to come back and thwart a break away attempt. In the second period the Otters took the lead with Cottrill scoring from Lockwood . Buczek came up with a big save in the late stages of period 2 to keep it 1-1 . In the third the opposition scored 2, back to back, to take the lead . Holman then scored to make it 3-2 . With the Otters down for the last two minutes, they could not complete the comeback. Final score was 4-2 for Temiscaming in a chippy contest.
Game three was Saturday at 1;30 against the Baltimore squad. The Otters had the Baltimore lads hemmed in completely for four straight minutes before Cottrill scored to make it 1-0 and then with only a half second left , Patey scored shorthanded to put the boys up 2-0 after 1 .
In the second, the Otters were shorthanded again and the D men came up big. Tysen Robb and Alan East broke up potential breakaways while Jake Hildebrandt strong play included chipping out several pucks to kill off the oppositions P.P. The second and third period saw the Otters put on great pressure . Patey scored from Kyle Mattice and Cottrill scored to make it 4-0 . Mattice sniped a high glove marker to make it 5-0 and then Mattice finished a wrap around feed from Patey to make it 6-0. Baltimore put a wrench into Buczeks shut out bid with 3:00 minutes left but Wes Farnsworth buried his own rebound to make the final 7-1.
Game four had the Otters taking on the Hespeler team with an 8:35 p.m. puck drop. After several penalties being called the two teams went back and forth before Hespeler scored to make it 1-0 after the first . The Otters headed into the second being a man down and Hespeler answered with a P.P goal to go up 2-0. The Otters had numerous opportunities on the Power play but it became clear towards the end of the game, they were running on fumes. Nathan Markle's constant hustle paid off with a tally to make it 2-1 but Hespeler shut it down and took the game 2-1.
The semi final game, Sunday at 10:00a.m., saw the Otters having a chance for redemption against the Temiscaming squad. The Otters again went down a man early with Buczek coming up with two great saves and Farnsworth coming back with a head of steam to stop a sure break away . Period 1 ended 0-0. Buczek stopped a break away 30 seconds into the second period before the opposition scored twice within four minutes to go up 2-0. Despite being shorthanded at the start of period 3, ,Holman scored with 7 minutes left to make it close but one minute later Temiscaming scored to make it 3-1. The Otters applied the pressure for several minutes which led to a Lockwood goal with 19 seconds left to give them a last minute shot .The opposing team chipped the puck out and the Otters went down 3-2 .
A great weekend of hockey for the boys. This age group showed some great character and heart playing 5 games in three days with some late nights as well!!
Congratulations to everyone involved for a successful tournament. Next action for the Otters is a Wednesday evening contest when Coach Farnsworth will lead the boys into action against the North Muskoka squad at the Don Lough at 6;40 . Come out and show your support .