In what felt like a fairy tale
weekend, the U13AA Sabres travelled to Michigan to take part in representing
Canada at the Nations Cup. The Sabres were coming off a couple tough defeats
back home before the tournament. The players made a pre-tourney commitment
to each other to focus on the small details of their game and work for each
other as great teammates.
The only question was...would it be enough?
Upon arriving at the first game the boys were excited to be given their new Team Canada Jerseys and socks. Each boy hung their jersey above their bag in the locker room before games. With the Americans playing a more physical game we knew we had to skate through checks and hooks all tourney long. The boys relished the opportunity to play a physical brand of hockey and pushed hard in game one, skating away with a 3-0 shutout of Romeoville (Ohio).
Next up was the high powered Compuware team. (Michigan) After falling behind in the game the Sabres rallied back with a huge second period and eventually skated to a 7-4 win. The Sabres were fired up Saturday morning for game 3. After once again falling behind early, the boys stormed back to taken down Little Caesars (Michigan) 8-5. Next up…Team Tennessee.
With a win against Tennessee the boys were fully aware that 1st place overall was in their grasp. They put in a dominating performance against Tennessee and skated to a 6-2 win, punching their ticket to the Championship game on Sunday.
On Sunday the boys were paying close attention to other games in our division to see how the overall championship was playing out. As expected, it all came down to the championship game to decide the Nations Cup. Up against a hot PSM Force from Fort Wayne Indy we knew things would be tight. What we faced was a young PSM Force goalie who was on top of his game. The Sabres applied max pressure in the 1st period but couldn’t solve the goaltending. As games ended on the other rinks our rink began to fill and grow louder and louder with each passing moment. By the end of the second period we were locked in a 0-0 defensive battle and the grand stands were packed with players and parents from other teams chanting USA-USA, Can-a-da-Can-a-da. It was an awesome sight from our bench looking over at the crowd. During the intermission, the coaches simply asked the boys to play for each other in the 3rd period and do the little things that make Canadian hockey great. A few minutes into the 3rd the Sabres picked off a pass and the finally fired a shot past the talented netminder. 1-0 Canada.
The next 10minutes was back and forth action with great opportunities and huge saves. With a late penalty against us and the goalie pulled for PSM Force we were in trouble. PSM had a two on one coming down against us late and our team leader made a diving superman play to defect a pass that very well may have lead to the tying goal. It was the defensive moment we needed and propelled the rest of the squad to dig a little deeper and hold off the Americans to win it with a 1-0 shutout and capture the Nations Cup Championship for Canada.
As you’d expect the boys, coaches and fans went a little nuts. As the boys welcomed the other Canadian teams and fans onto the ice celebrate as a group, we were able to gather the players from all the Canadian teams together for a group pic. While waiting for the parents to snap a few photos, the boys all broke into our national anthem. It was an absolute goosebumps moment and one this coach will never forget.
Congratulations boys, you earned it for each other.
Coach Todd
