BANTAM FURY SHOWS WELL AT KINGSTON TOURNY The Jim Newton Electric Bantam Fury lacrosse club traveled down the 401
east over the weekend of June 12-14 to the Limestone City, otherwise known
as Kingston. The boys would be participating in the Limestone City Invitational
Tournament. This was the squads first tournament, and they were guaranteed
4 games, with the possibility of a 5th, if they made it to the championship.
The Fury would be participating in a pool with two of their Zone 6 opponents,
Clarington and Peterborough, along with Nepean, who participate in Zone
5.
With having to travel quite a distance, the Kingston tournament committee were very accommodating when arranging the schedule, and did not schedule our boys to play on Friday, but scheduled their 3 games on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning.
The boys 1st game would be on Saturday morning, against the always tough Clarington squad. They had faced Clarington already in Zone play, and game out on their only loss in Zone play so far, by a score of 6-2. It must have been the early morning start, as the boys came out very flat footed, and after just 7 minutes, found themselves down by a score of 2-0. With just over 4 minutes to play in the 1st period, Craig Shier cut the defecit in half with a goal assisted by Mitch Naylor. That got the Fury back in the game, but the Fury then took a couple of penalties, and the Clarington power play went to work, scoring 2 more goals before the end of the period, to take a 4-1 lead.
Early into the 2nd period, Liam Newton had an unassisted marker, to narrow the margin again, but again, penalty trouble by the Fury, allowed the Gaels to score 2 more goals, and again they widened their lead to 6-2. Just before the end of the period, Riley Smith narrowed the gap to 3 goals, when he found the back of the net, with the lone assist going to Brendan Hlibchuk.
The Fury seemed to run out of steam in the 3rd period, and Clarington netted 2 more goals, to make the final score 8-3 in favour of the Gaels from Clarington.
With one game under their belts, the Fury hit the floor for their second game, against Nepean. From the opening draw, the teams looked very balanced, with Nepean being the bigger of the 2 teams, and from the start of the game, trying to show this as well. They were a very physical team, and tried to beat up the Fury, and punish them whenever and whoever had the ball. The Fury however were willing to show their coaches and fans, that they would not be pushed around by the bigger team, by going toe to toe with them. The Fury opened the scoring just 4 minutes into the game, when Hayden Ryan scored unassisted, to give the Fury the early lead, and then just 2 minutes later, Nepean knotted the score, and then 2 minutes after that, Tom Weber gave the Fury the lead heading into the second period by a 2-1 margin.
As the game wore on, it was if the refs were slowly losing the control of the game, as there was many fouls not called, and some calls that left everyone scratching their heads. The Fury again got themselves in penalty trouble, albeit with some very doubtful calls, and Nepean netted the only goal of the 2nd period, knotting the score at 2-2, and for all intense and purposes, setting up a very entertaining 3rd period. During a scrum towards the end of the 2nd period, where Colin Naylor got knocked to the floor, and jumped on by a Nepean player, who continued to pound on him, his teammate, Craig Shier, came to his aid, and for his assistance, earned himself a game ejection, while the Nepean team earned no penalties. This caused Fury coach Gary Hlibchuk to voice his displeasure, which earned him a bench minor.
The 3rd period was wild as expected, as it was a steady stream to the sin bin! Nepean scored 2 quick goals just 50 seconds apart to take a 4-2 lead. Nepean was able to hold off the Fury until with just 29 seconds to go in the game, Hayden Ryan scored his second goal of the game, with the assist going to Tom Weber.
The Fury were definately upset with letting the 2nd game slip away, as the boys felt that they should have beat Nepean. With their 3rd game scheduled for 6 pm that night, the team had a few hours to kill, so everyone went back to the hotel, and relaxed.
Even though the KLMLA rep program is just 3 years old, the rivalry already exists with their opponents for the final game of the day! The dreaded Peterborough Lakers would be the next opponent, and as always, the trash talking would begin. Well, the boys must have had a very good rest, maybe too good a rest, as Peterborough owned a 2-0 lead before the 1st period was 5 minutes old. However, this must have awaken the troops, as the Fury would score the next 7 goals of the game, over the final 2 1/2 periods, and defeated the Lakers by a score of 7-2! Scoring for the Fury would be Hayden Ryan with 1 goal and 2 assists, Zach Fleming with 2 goals and 1 assist, Tom Weber with a goal, Matt Northmore with a goal, and Craig Shier and Riley Smith with a goal apiece.
With the victory, 3 teams ended up with a record of 1 win and 2 losses. With Clarington winning all 3 of their games, they would be the top seed, and the rest would be decided by goals for and against. When it all was cleared up, the 2nd place team would be the Fury, with 3rd going to Peterborough, and 4th to Nepean. So, setting up the semi finals, Clarington would get Nepean, and the Fury would get the Lakers again! The team left the rink on a high, and went to dinner, and back to the hotel for a date with the waterslide and pool! As this was a big tournament, a lot of teams were staying at the same hotel, and as the story goes, both Peterborough and the Fury were together. But, credit to both teams, even though they beat each other up on the floor, they all sat around in the pool and hot tubs and enjoyed each others company.
Sunday morning rolled around, and both teams hit the floor, ready to do battle again. The Fury knew the Lakers would be out for revenge, but the Fury were ready, and before the period was 9 minutes old, the Fury owned a 4-1 lead. Scoring for the Fury were Brendan Hlibchuk from Tom Weber, Tom Weber from Zach Fleming, Tom Weber, unassisted, and Zach Fleming also unassisted.
The Fury started the 2nd period with the lead, but saw it evaporate, as they got themselves into penalty trouble, allowing the Lakers back in the game! The Lakers scored 2 goals 32 seconds apart, to make the score 4-3. At the 8 minute mark of the 2nd period, Zach Fleming notched his 2nd goal of the game to give the Fury a 2 goal lead, making the score 5-3. Peterborough again scored to make the score 5-4, but with just over a minute to go in the 2nd period, Hayden Ryan made the score 6-3 in favour of the Fury.
With a trip to the championship game on the line, the Fury knew they would have to buckle down and stay out of the box in order to be successful. It did not start out that way though, and the Lakers took advantage of the silly penalties, and scored 3 goals, to make the score 6-6. With just over 7 minutes to go in the 3rd period, goals by Zach Bratina and Colin Naylor, scored unassisted goals, to give the Fury the lead at 8-6. With the Fury again taking a couple of silly penalties towards the end of the game, the Lakers were able to pull their goalie in favour of an extra attacker to try and notch the tying goals. With just 40 seconds to go in the game, the Lakers narrowed the gap to 1 goal. From the draw, the Lakers gained control and on a fast break pass, the Laker forward was sent in all alone on Fury goalie Josh O'Neill, who made the save and when the Fury gained control of the loose ball, were able to maintain possession for the 8-7 victory, and a trip to the championship game against the Clarington Gaels.
With just a couple of hours between the semi final and the championship game, the boys grabbed a quick bite and then headed back to the arena to battle with the Gaels. Knowing the task would not be an easy one, the Fury remained positive, and hit the floor ready to do what was needed to do to bring home the championship.
What happened in this game, happened in the previous 2 games, too many penalties against a good club, and you may get burned. That is exactly what happened, and when the final whistle blew, the Gaels came away with a 7-3 victory. Scoring for the Fury in the final game all with singles were Hayden Ryan, Tom Weber and Craig Shier.
Even though the boys did not bring home the championship, they have to
be proud of what they accomplished over the weekend, and hope that they
can continue to build on their success. Next action for the Fury is Tuesday,
June 16th, at the Lindsay Rec Centre, and it should be a whale of a game,
as they play host to the Peterborough Lakers, who will no doubt be out
to avenge the 2 losses to the Fury over the weekend.
