Strong Showing by Bantam Rep at 2nd Annual Caledonia Challenge Cup
After a successful start, winning four straight exhibition games and a convincing 6-1 regular season opener against Listowel, the Bantam Reps traveled to Caledonia to participate in the 2nd Annual Challenge Cup Tournament. The Challenge Cup is a large, well attended tournament for "A" through "C" division Rep teams held October 15 to 17.
To start the hockey long weekend, the first game was held late Friday morning against the Dunnville Rivertown Flyers. While the Ice Dogs offensively dominated much of the game, Dunnville proved a pesky opponent, resulting in a 4-4 tie.
The second game was held Saturday afternoon against the hometown Caledonia Thunder. This game proved to be a tough outing for the Ice Dogs. Despite challenging Caledonia throughout the game, the Thunder came out strong and stayed strong throughout the game, resulting in a 4-1 loss.
The third game took place Saturday evening against the Pelham Panthers. To emerge from the round-robin pool and compete on Sunday in the tournament semis, the Ice Dogs knew that they needed a strong win coupled with a Dunnville loss to the strong Caledonia team. The Dogs played a very well disciplined game against Pelham, with a solid two-way effort leading to a 4-0 shutout. After the win against Pelham, the guys still had to await the result of the later Caledonia-Dunnville game to see if they would advance. Sure enough, Caledonia won easily.
The Sunday morning semi-final saw the Ice Dogs match up with the other division pool winner, the Grimsby Peach Kings, an "A" level Rep team. Continuing their disciplined solid two-way play, the Dogs met their match with a fast back-and-forth scoreless game running late into the second period. With 4 minutes remaining in the 2nd, the Dogs finally opened the scoring. In the third, keeping the pressure up, and with Grimsby growing frustrated, the Dogs scored three further unanswered goals for another 4-0 shutout. A great effort, team, and congrats to Pat for his 2nd shutout of the tournament!
Advancing to the Sunday evening tournament final, the Dogs held a re-match with the well-rested, hometown Caledonia Thunder. Sunday evening's game revealed the Dog's fatigue from three days of travel and competitive "A" and "BB" opponents, and the tournament trophy decisively went to Caledonia! However, the Dogs brought home a well deserved 2nd place plaque!
Keep up the great play, Dogs!