Heartland Selects Atom BB Team
I'm back and have begun to recover from our recent adventure to Brampton Ontario for the all girls hockey tournament. It was a fantastic experience despite the 1-2 overall record. Considering the team had never had a practice and that 5 of the girls were completely new the girls did admirably well. They lost the first game 2-0 with the winning goal coming with only 1:46 remaining in the final period and an empty net goal for the insurance with 6 seconds left. Our second game we were clearly outmatched by a much larger team and despite the lopsided size match-ups we only allowed 4 goals in a 4-0 loss. After losing both games we knew the girls could not move on so we focused on team play and scoring. The third game we matched up size wise and played a very hard game and despite giving up a goal midway thru the second period the girls did not panic. A late goal by one of our new players from Columbus Ohio tied it up. We were then presented with a fierce final few minutes where the opposing team pulled their goalie as they needed a win to advance. Our girls responded and a shot from the mid-line connected for a goal and complete joy for the girls. They nearly added another empty net goal a few seconds later with another long shot that bounced of the pipe. When the buzzer sounded we came away with a 2-1 win.
Poppy skating defensively in the Away Sweater
To put this into perspective this tournament had 408 teams entered. ALL of them were girls and in Ontario this is considered to be an event like the super bowl of girls hockey. In the 18 team BB Travel division we were the only team from the USA. I scoured the entry lists and only saw one other team from the United States in the PeeWee division. The teams from across Canada put this on their bulletin boards at the beginning of the year and let me say its an incredible way for them to end a season. Our team was named the Heartland Selects and was comprised of girls from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The core group had played together in some tournaments and were the girls from NC, TN, KY, and IN. For this tourney the team manager and coaches scoured rosters of teams with girl players entered in tournaments across the midwest. Luckily for us Poppy had played in a tournament in Detroit and this roster was one that they got both players from our organization. In fact the other girl from the Capital Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) played of Frudoch's team last season even though she is the same age as Poppy. One other girl from the Columbus area was chosen as well from CCYHA and she was a great addition. All the girls wore the uniform of the Louisville Stallions Travel Hockey Team for this event and as luck would have it Poppy got #10 which is the number she has always worn and was also her big brothers number too. For this tournament both home and away sweater were required. The girls looked so great!
Being as this was my second trip to Toronto and the GTA in the past 2 weeks I was able to spend more time relaxing instead of trying to pack all the things into a weekend you might do out of town. Poppy was happy that her passport was used again and the border crossings were pretty simple both ways. For this trip I even drove my CLK500 so the trip was much more enjoyable from the driving perspective. Our Hotel was very new and located just a mile or so from Toronto's Pearson International Airport and the departures went right overhead all day and night. It was really nice to see the heavies that we don't get here in C-Bus. We saw lots of B777's and B767's. A few B747's and heard but did not see the A380. Lots more A330's, A300's, and A310's as well. Plus add the countless B737's, B757's, A320's from WestJet, Air Canada and all the other carriers. Would I have preferred to be on the other side of the hotel to see them climbing? Of course, but I did see them as they flew off and got to hear them as well. Frudoch was quite jealous he did not get to go.
So it was a fun productive weekend and all of the parents and coaches thought if we could have had even one practice then the outcomes of the first two games would have been different. Goes to show you that girls can play hockey!
The Thrill of Victory!
