The Bantam BEA LL stars have had a great 2016/2017 season going 27-19-9.
Ever since they made it to the semi-finals in their last tournament in Ottawa they have been excited for their home tournament weekend. This was the 1st Annual World Junior Classic, a tournament where each team is assigned a country to represent just like at the World Juniors. Millbrook was lucky enough to be Team Canada and they wore the red and white proudly. The team had a Canada flag that they would skate around the ice before each game and it definitely seemed to be our good luck charm. Millbrook was the only team to go undefeated over 6 games to win the Gold Medal!!!
They were scheduled for 3 games on Friday and 1 Saturday for round robin play. First up was Belarus (Lakefield) who the Stars defeated 5-2. Game 2 was Switzerland (Percy), with the Stars winning 4-1.
Games 3 and 4 were both 3-0 shutouts for our Goalie Charlie McEldon (who would go on to win the TOP GOALIE honours for the tournament) against Russia (Dorchester) and Finland (Coldwater) respectively.
After round robin play Millbrook was tied for 1st place in the A pool with Czech Republic (Woodville) at 12 points. The deciding factor was goals for/against percentage and this put Millbrook in 2nd earning the 1st wildcard spot and a semi-final berth.
Canada played Russia in the semi-final matchup with Canada once again being victorious with a 3-1 win and earning a spot in the GOLD MEDAL GAME at 3:45pm on Sunday afternoon vs the Czech Republic. Both teams came out strong wanting to take home the coveted hardware. The Czech’s scored 1st in the 1st period, but Canada came back strong scoring 3 unanswered goals. No scoring in the 2nd period and with less than 2 mins to go it looked like Canada had the game in the bag.
Czech Republic pulled their goalie and with 1:04 left in the game got a goal to come within one, but could not get another and Canada could celebrate their big win.
Representing team Canada were forwards: Cameron Grant, Corbyn MacDonald, Jacob Campbell, Avery McFadden, Zachary Sukumaran, Brock Shorting-Smith, Ryan Johnson, Cole Simpson and Keegan Brown. On
Defence: Taryn Madill, Gavin McKeown, Gil Hunter and Ben Westlake and between the pipes Goalie Charlie McEldon.
A huge congratulations to the team on an absolutely fantastic tournament, we are so proud of you all. I would also like to thank the bench staff for all their hard work with the kids this season, I know it’s appreciated: Coach John MacDonald, Trainer Mike Simpson, Assistant Coach Jamie Grant and Assistant Coach Roland Greber.
The team would also like to send a huge shout-out to MDMHA Tournament Convenor Matthew Greber on a fabulous tournament. Many positive comments were heard around the rink over the weekend and all the returning Bantams for next year look forward to playing in it again next season.
By Marianne Greber
