Chadder’s U16 AAA Battles Hard in Dallas
As a coaching staff we feel that the tournament in Dallas was our best weekend thus far. The team battled hard in every game and we should that we can compete with some of the best teams in the country.
In game one we fast a solid team in the California Cougars. We jumped out to an early lead when Janik Sundberg tipped in a shot from Ian Anderson Late in the first period. Unfortunately the Cougars scored the next three to put us down 3 – 1 going into the third period. In the third period our players battled hard and were able to tie the game at 3 – 3 on two nice shots from new Chadder’s player Jesse Ross and Matt Berard. Late in the third the Cougars capitalized on a defensive break down and eventually tallied another with a minute and a half left to seal the game 5 – 2.
Game two definitely didn’t have the start that we were hoping as we faced off against a very skilled Anchorage North Stars Team. The North Stars jumped out to a two goal lead in the first five minutes of the game. This game could have turned real ugly real quick, but our guys responded well to the slow start and were able tally to goals in a the first to square the game at 2 – 2. Those goals came off great plays by Henri Laurilla, and Jesse Ross. Mike Laganeire had assists on both goals. The second period was a back and forth battled and Anchorage was able to get a goal with three and a half minutes to go in the period. However we didn’t back down and we answered right back with another goal of the stick of Jesse Ross with two minutes remaining in the second period. Doug Newell made a great hustle play to disrupt Anchorage’s fore check and found Ross in front for the pretty goal. In between the second we challenged our team to step up and win the third. The guys came out hard and played a great third period. Mike Laganeire was able to score the go ahead goal with seven minutes left in the third. The play was set up on two great passes from Laurilla and Ross. After we had the lead we didn’t look back and goalie Hayde Capouzzo helped seal the victory with a few amazing saves at the end of the game.
Game three we faced off against a very talented Omaha Energy team. In this game we were undisciplined and in hurt us in the end. We took a few bad penalties and they capitalized on the opportunity. Other then the penalties our team played well. This was another game that could have gotten out of hand, but we competed right to the end. Had we finished a few of our scoring chance in the game things might have ended different. In the end Omaha went on to beat us that game 4 -0.
Game four had us facing another really strong team in the Alliance Bulldogs from Dallas. This is a team we faced before and we new they were very fast and very skilled. They came out with something to prove and scored two goals in the opening period. Again instead off folding our guys kept working even after the Alliance scored to make it 3 - 0 part way through the second. The hard work paid off later in the second when we opened our scoring on Jesse Ross’s fourth goal of the tournament. From that point on the game was back and forth. The Alliance added a fourth goal in the third and went on to win by the score of 4 – 1.
-Adam Kostichka, assistant coach