The Kitchener Jr Rangers Novice White’s had an emotional
roller coaster of a tournament at the 47th Annual Wayne Gretzky International
this past weekend. It seemed like everything
that could happen in hockey happened this weekend to the Novice White’s. Four days of hockey, 7 challenging games and a
tough overtime loss in the finals, but in the end, what will be remembered most
is the boys dedication, hard work, smiles, and commitment to their team.
Going into the tournament, it was known that the Novice Whites had a tough road to even get out of the round robin facing strong teams including two higher level teams coming down to Tier 2. The boys started off the tournament slow, which we blamed on Christmas turkey, but following the first game great efforts were put up against a strong Sarnia Jr. Sting team and Guelph. Going into the fourth and final game against Halton Hills Thunder, we only had one goal in mind, win the game and we are in. The Rangers fought hard against a good Halton team. Halton scored an early goal but the Rangers bounced back trying hard to get pucks to the net. Unfortunately the Rangers faced a wall of red hitting everything but the back of the net. Halton got an empty net goal to win 2-0. From the coach’s perspective, the better team had not won the game but lessons were learned and our tourney fate was in another teams hands.
The hockey gods had spoken later on Wednesday night. We needed Waterloo Black to win and they did meaning the Kitchener Whites were in the quarter finals based on the head to head tie break rule with Sarnia. It was a rematch against Halton Hills. Thursday morning it was hard to tell if the boys were pumped or nervous. The dressing room was a little quieter than normal. Coaching staff just told the boys to do what they have been doing the last three games and keeping our 3 main objectives for the tournament in check, 1) Win the puck battles 2) Clear the defensive zone and 3) Have Fun. The boys came out working hard, with a number of close calls but Halton struck first and then again early in the second. Coaching staff was hard at work, telling the boys that they could battle back, get the next goal and the momentum will shift. That is exactly what happened. The Rangers scored late in the second and early in the third to tie the game. For the last 10 minutes of the third, it was a battle back and forth. The game ended in a tie which meant off to three on three overtime. It started off tense with the Rangers killing off a penalty. Play was back and forth with both teams playing well but on the third shift the Rangers moved the puck up the ice leading to a great overtime goal. The Rangers had Won!
In the semi’s the Rangers faced off against Kitchener Blue. The game was a good battle but in the end the White’s where able to capitalize on their chances to lead them to the finals. In the finals, the boys were up against a strong Burlington Tier 1 team they had lost to 5-1 in the first game of the tournament. Coaching staff new it was the turkey legs and not a reflection of how our teams match up. The boys were excited and knew what they had to do. After a shaky start by both teams, the first period ended in a 2-2 tie but Kitchener was doing very well. In the second period the Rangers controlled the play and had taken a 4-2 lead at the end of two. With a goal early in the third it seemed like the Rangers were on the road to victory. But Burlington never gave up and continued to fight hard controlling the play and taking advantage of mistakes by the Rangers. Burlington got a goal with seven minutes remaining and you could feel the momentum shift and the Rangers struggling defensively. Burlington scored with four minutes remaining and then tied it up with their goalie pulled with a minute remaining. The game went to overtime but in the end the Rangers could not shut down Burlington’s wave of momentum. The final score was 6-5.
The coaching staff is extremely proud of the boys and their efforts in this tournament. It was a roller coaster. Filled with ups, downs, tense moments, great excitement and a tough loss in the finals but there were no tears and smiles broke through. Like this team has done all season we work on the good and the bad, we win and we lose as a team and continue with the development of these young boys to become better and we all learn from our past challenges.
Great job Kitchener Jr Rangers Novice Whites!!!