The East Lambton Bantam Rep team headed to St George to compete in the Jack Tolhurst tournament over Oct.19th weekend
After playing 3 round robin games vs. Whitby, Dunnville and the host team St George over the Friday and Saturday. Going 3-0 and amassing 12 goals for and 3 against they found themselves in first place in their pool.
Sunday morning had us playing in the semi finals vs Dresden. With Josh Archer being the strong goaltender in net and collecting his 2nd shut out for the tournament with a win of 3-0. The boys earned their spot in the finals vs. South Kent
The final game was one for the fans who sat on pins and needles all game. South Kent got an early lead in the first period with a 1-0 lead. The game was end to end hockey as each team battled to take control of the game.
At the start of the third period South Kent did manage to pot 2 quick goals. At this point East Lambton was down 3-0 but never gave up and kept battling. With 5 minutes left South Kent was awarded a penalty shot. Archer being calm, cool and collected never gave the South Kent player a chance to score. Less than a minute later after the penalty shot, East Lambton was able to notch a goal and bring the game to a 3-1 score. Now South Kent had the worst lead in hockey a 2 goal spread. East Lambton was able to keep pressing South Kent with the goalie pulled and were able scored another goal in the last 7 seconds of the game. The Eagles were not done with still lots of time left to tie the game. With 1 second left the Eagles were able to force the game into overtime with another quick goal. The whole bench erupted with enthusiasm.
The overtime format was 3on3, 2on2 then 1on1.
East Lambton had all the momentum and had many great chances to win the Jack Tolhurst tourney. As the overtime periods ticked by one by one. We were down to the last of the overtime periods 1on1. East Lambton team beat the South Kent team with the tactic of pulling the goalie while the play was down in South Kent's end to go 2on1 to try and finish the tournament off. Unfortunatly South Kent got a lucky break and were able to score in an empty net.
The coaching staff saw all the players grow as a team. All the players should be proud of their success over the weekend and only greater things to come for this group of boys!