Sep 24, 2012 | tbouy | 786 views
Atom AA Gold Players: London AAA Early Bird Tournament
We had another great weekend of hockey and this gave us the perfect
opportunity to raise our game play and also a preview of where we all need
to be if we want to move up next year.
The weekend began with our first ever AAA game vs Lambton Jr Sting. They seemed a little surprised by our speed and passing and once we got ahead they were not able to recover. We came close to shutting them out but finished the game with a 4 - 1 victory.
Game two saw us face one of the tournament favourites (who eventually went on to win the tournament), Toronto Nationals. The players were very disciplined and stuck to the system the coaches gave them and for most of the game outplayed the Nats. A late period backhand found its way into the net but was waved off by the officials . The 2 - 1 loss was hard fought and well played by all the Gold players.
Our first game on Saturday was against another favourite the Southern Tier Admirals. The kids came out a little tired and flat but were able to hold the Admirals to a 0 - 0 tie late into the third frame. Unfortunately a few bad turnovers turned into goals and the Admirals were able to put in a few last minute goals on their way to a 3 - 0 victory.
We finished Saturday with a game against the Ajax Raiders. After a hard fought loss in game 3, the LJK Gold just never seemed to regain the level of energy and team play they showed in the first 2 games on Friday. Heavy legs lead to a lack of focus and execution which led to a 3 - 1 loss. Having said that, it was still a great showing by all 17 players as we only allowed 9 goals against in 4 games vs AAA teams.
Overall although we had some losses this was a great experience for everyone and can only be looked back upon as a plus. It should be evident that we need to continue working on our skating and speed and continue to improve our passing and communication. We finish this week up with another practice and our season opener is on Saturday where we can use all of this great experience.
Great work by all of the kids!!
Thank you to Jim Vautour for helping us out on the bench and hopefully if we need his services again he can do the same.
The coaches
Rob, Tom and Brock