Sep 16, 2018 | twelychkasr | 538 views
Novice A Tigers Win Early Bird Tournament
The Welland Novice "A" Tigers participated in the Garden City Early Bird Tournament over the weekend. The Tigers won the Championship after a thrilling 3-1 win over Center Wellington Fusion in the Finals on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers put forth a strong effort in the 4 round robin games finishing with a record of 3-1-0.
The Tigers won a thrilling semi final game in sudden death overtime against Oakville Rangers, before taking home the title in a hard fought battle against Center Wellington.
The coaches are extremely proud of all the boys for their hard work this weekend!
The Welland Tigers began their tournament with a dominant 7-0 win over the Dundas Blues in the first round robin game of the tournament. The Tigers followed that game up with another lop sided win over the Orillia Terriers in game two, winning by a score of 12-0.
The Tigers faced a strong Center Wellington Fusion team in their third game and fell behind early. The tigers fought back to tie the game at 3-3 before allowing 2 late Fusion goals and losing by a score of 5-3.
In the fourth game the Tigers faced off against the Burlington Eagles. Both teams had a record of 2-1-0 at this time and the winner of this game would claim second place in the division and a birth in the tournament semi-finals.
The Tigers came out strong and managed to build a 3-0 lead. The Tigers were able to rely on strong defensive play by all the players and good goal tending to hold off a strong Burlington attack. The Tigers only gave up 1 goal late in the game and skated to a 3-1 victory and a spot in the semi-finals.
In the Semi-Finals the Tigers faced their toughest opponent thus far, in the Oakville Rangers. The Tigers got the jump on Oakville catching them off guard early and often and throwing a lot of early shots at the net. The Tigers were relentless in their attack and managed to build a quick 3-0 lead after the first period. The second period saw lots of shots, but great goal tending on both ends and no goals allowed. In the third period, the Tigers were in defensive mode trying to withstand a strong Oakville club who took it to the Tigers for the third period. Oakville managed to score 2 goals midway through the period and capped the come back off late in the third, tying the game 3-3. The game went to a 3 on 3 sudden death overtime. Both teams traded breakaways which were stopped by both goaltenders, before the Tigers were able to fire a great shot past the Oakville goalie with just over a minute left in the overtime for the win.
The Tigers advanced to the Tournament finals and once again had to face a strong Center Wellington team. The Tigers fell behind only seconds into the game and found themselves down 1-0. The Tigers turned their play around quickly and combined a strong offensive attack with a great defensive effort in order to draw even 1-1 midway through the game.
The Tigers managed to take a late third period lead with a nice goal to put the Tigers up 2-1. The Tigers didn't hold back and managed to score a third goal with just over a minute left in the game, which was all the Tigers needed to skate to a 3-1 victory and the Tournament Championship.
The coaches are extremely proud of all 17 players for their hard work, dedication and commitment this weekend. It was a great way to kick off the 2018/2019 season.
Congratulations on the Tournament win!!!!