Mount Forest Rams Bantam LL Squad Wins West Grey Tournament, News, BANTAM LL, U15, 2018-2019 (Mt Forest Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2018-2019 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Nov 26, 2018 | Jason Droog | 1299 views
Mount Forest Rams Bantam LL Squad Wins West Grey Tournament
On November 25th, 2018, the Mount Forest Rams Bantam LL team competed in the West Grey Bantam LL Tournament in Ayton.  After two challenging games, the Mount Forest Bantam LL squad played in the tournament championship game against an equally matched Flesherton team.


The Mount Forest team came out at the start of the first period exploding with speed and driving the puck into the Flesherton zone after winning the opening face-off. Ten seconds into the game saw veteran winger Owen McTavish capitalizing on a supreme passing play initiated by Ian McDougall driving the puck into the Flesherton zone and feeding Centre Ryan Tisdale, who expertly spotted the puck to McTavish who found the back of the net, putting the Rams up by one.

About two and a half minutes later, Tisdale on the ice again for his second shift of the game, made an excellent move beating the Flesherton defenders and fired a shot on net that provided a rebound to Kian Droog, who was waiting at the front corner of the net.  Droog picked the corner of the net beating the Flesherton goalie - Rams up by two.

The Flesherton team was awoken by the sudden aggressiveness of the Mount Forest team and fought back hard.  The two teams were evenly matched and if it wasn't for the Rams goal tender James Sales and the defensive lineup, Flesherton may have mounted a comeback.  This was a very fast paced hockey game that had the fans heads turning from side to side as the play moved back and forth from end to end.  The Rams defensive lineup: Colby Droog, Tyler Mason, Nolan Aitken, Nick Dowling and Goalie James Sales kept the Rams in the game, along with the constant offensive pressure of Centre’s Josh Kelly and Ryan Tisdale creating truly entertaining offensive opportunities.

The Rams held onto their two-goal lead until Flesherton found the back of the Mount Forest net with about a minute left to play in the second period.

The third period saw some aggressiveness and frustration from the Flesherton team as the Mount Forest squad continued their assault on the Flesherton goalie, who held their net firm and stopped a barrage of shots.  The third period saw some very lopsided and questionable penalty calls against the Rams, but that did not deter their effort.  The Rams successfully defended a five on four penalty kill two minutes into the third period that saw goaltender James Sales come up with some clutch saves and the Rams defensive squad successfully icing the puck to wind down the clock on their shorthanded two minutes of play.

The Rams ended up with another man in the penalty box with just under three minutes to play in the game.  This seemed to fuel the Rams determination and the squad came out harder and faster, killing the penalty with effectively no shots on net by the desperate Flesherton squad.

With about 45 seconds to play in the game and both squads at even strength, the Flesherton team pulled their goalie and added an extra attacker to an already highly intense game, attempting to go for the win and trying to beat the quickly fading time-clock.  The Rams fought hard to maintain control and successfully returned the pressure.

With 23 seconds remaining in the game and the Flesherton net empty, the Rams found themselves in the biggest and most controversial call of the tournament when Centre Josh Kelly striped the puck from a Flesherton player in the neutral zone, the referee blowing the play down on a delayed offside call and after the whistle Kelly was cross-checked in the back by a Flesherton player.  The Flesherton player then proceeded to punch Kelly in the back of the head as he was trying to skate away.  This somehow resulted in the official sending the Flesherton player to the penalty box for a body contact penalty as well as sending Kelly to the box for a cross-checking infraction despite the query of Rams coach Jason Droog.

During the query by coach Droog, the entire arena suddenly became completely silent as a Flesherton parent in the stands behind the penalty box and with a booming voice screamed at the Flesherton player in the box, “I @#?^% told you not to do that ?&$@!” and stormed out of the rink.  As players returned to the Rams bench for a change, a comment was made by someone, “that’s not going to be a good ride home for that guy!”.

With 23 seconds to go, the Rams successfully won the face-off and pulled the puck back to their own end, seeing the defensive line expertly spotting a waiting Owen McTavish near the Rams blue line on the open side of the rink.  The defensive line fed the puck to a lone McTavish who raced up the boards with a drive and determination that couldn’t be beat.  McTavish entered the Flesherton zone with the puck and angled towards the empty net with the entire Flesherton line in pursuit.  Under pressure and being checked from behind, McTavish at the face-off circle in the Flesherton zone fired a shot towards the empty net that was just short of the strong side post.  With Droog on the ice and driving to the net to support his teammate, the puck ricocheted of the boards behind the net in an almost perfect 'V' shape right to an open Droog at the corner post of the empty net.  Droog, who was wide open and uncovered waited with the puck at the corner of the net with three seconds remaining, then happened to bobble the puck and missed the open net, thus winding the clock to zero and finishing the game.

The Rams hard work and explosive offense in the opening two and a half minutes of the game, followed by great net minding by Sales, defensive work by the entire defensive line, and offensive pressure saw the Rams win the game and the tournament, the culmination of three hockey games in one day and an all-out team effort.
In closing, the Mount Forest squad worked together as a team, an entire team, which saw them succeed. And when Kian Droog came back to the bench after missing the empty net from within a foot and with three seconds remaining in the game, coach Jason questioned, "what happened there?" in which Droog replied, "we don't talk about this"!
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