October 7, 2006... 2 WINS FOR TIGERS TO START THE WHITBY TOURNAMENT
While most people’s thoughts are on turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce a few have decided to spend their weekend at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre. This weekend is the Whitby Thanksgiving Tournament for many A, AA and AAA teams. The Streetsville Tigers Bantam AA team is making the trek down the 401 to take on the best of the east with the intentions of leaving a lasting “Paw Print”!

In the first game the Tigers faced the team from Georgina. The beginning of the game seemed to follow a common trend this year with many penalties being called for interference, holding and slashing. Both teams killed penalties while being 2 men short with several opportunities for both teams. Sean Corvetti’s shot hit the post with a 2 man advantage and it seemed like it might be a sign of things to come. The Tigers seemed to struggle on the power play and were unable to create any good chances.

Nick Wallace made his presence felt with a physical game. On one particular play he drew a penalty when the more diminutive Georgina player had his face meet Nick’s elbow.

As the 1st period came to an end Georgina capitalized on their power-play to take a 1-0 lead with only 12 seconds left.

The 2nd period started similar to the 1st until Corvetti fired a high hard wrist shot from the blueline giving the Tigers their 1st goal of the game. Once again the Tigers failed to capitalize on their power-plays and then with 7 minutes showing on the game clock Georgina scored their 2nd goal from a shot that was deflected past goaltender Matt Emanuele. The 2nd period ended with the score 2-1.

The Tigers, with their backs up against the wall, received another opportunity on the power-play and this time they succeeded on filling the net as Adam Galbraith redirected the puck past the Georgina goaltender on a nice pass from Mark Shiozaki. With the momentum now swinging in favour of the Tigers a wrist shot from the point by Mark Shiozaki deflected off the opportunistic Adam Galbraith for is 2nd goal of the game giving the Tigers the lead 3-2.

The Tigers scored their 4th goal of the game on a perfectly executed 2 on 1 rush by Dustin Hayward and Justin Iskra. With surgeon like accuracy Iskra lifted the puck to Hayward who made no mistake in putting it past the goalie.

Not to be denied the feisty Georgina team battled back and just 1 minute later they forced the Tigers in their own end and scored their 3rd goal to make the score 4-3. With 1:57 left in the game Matthew Raleigh was called for crosschecking to setup an exciting end. Georgina pressured the Tigers in their end for the duration of the penalty but were not successful in putting it past the Emanuele. The sound of the buzzer gave the Tigers their 1st win of the tournament.

With a win under their belt the Tigers prepared for their next encounter against the host Whitby team. There was definitely some excitement in the air during the pre-game warm-up as both teams prepared for battle. Tigers head coach Mike Canavan appeared anxious to get the game started and paced behind the bench like a caged tig……wait that’s getting just a bit too corny!! Let me start over.

The Whitby team pressed right from the opening drop of the puck with relentless hustle and would not be denied in there pursuit of the puck. The one thing they did not count on was meeting Connor Clark up close and personal. With cat like reflex’s Connor snared pucks with rapier like fashion, frustrating the Whitby snipers. The stellar goaltending seemed to inspire his teammates and the Tigers started to bring their “A” game despite several minor penalties, slowing the pace of what could have been a very entertaining 1st period. The period ended with some nice rushes and a few bone jarring body checks.

In the 1st minute of the 2nd period Ryan Johnston scored on a rebound off of the point shot by Mark Shiozaki. Despite this the Whitby team seemed even more determined and fired a barrage of missiles at the Tigers net only to be denied again by Mr. Clark. With 3 minutes gone in the 2nd period Whitby finally figured out how to get one past the Tigers netminder, tieing the score at 1-1.

A rather unfortunate “hitting from behind” call against Dustin Hayward created a 5 minute man advantage for Whitby at the 8 minute mark. Ryan Johnston who was already having a strong game killed the 1st minute effectively by keeping the puck down low in the Whitby zone. With effort like this the Tigers were successful in killing the major penalty.

Near the end of the 2nd, Justin Iskra dropped a pass to a streaking Matthew Raleigh who wound up and fired a howitzer that bulged the twine behind the Whitby goalie. Some of the Tigers players swore they could see smoke trailing behind that one. The 2nd period ended with the Tigers leading 2-1.

To make things exciting Whitby scored the tieing goal 20 seconds into the 3rd period. But not to be denied the Tigers regained the lead with a goal of their own by Justin Iskra as he banged in a rebound from a low hard shot fired by defenceman David Johnston.

What turned to be one of the most exciting games of the season thus far was capped with an empty net goal by Reilly Skyba to make the final score 4-2 in favour of the Tigers.

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