The SD Davis & Associates Bantam Blues captured their second tournament championship of the year winning the Vic Teal Tournament in St. Catharines this week.
The Bantam Blues started the tournament off with a solid 2-2 tie against Garden City and a 2-0 shutout of the Hamilton Huskies. The second day saw the Blues have some ups and downs losing both games to the Wheatfield Blades and Caledonia Thunder.
But not to be counted out, the boys came back to the arena Tuesday morning fired up for some retribution playing the Wheatfield Blades in the first semi-final game. The boys battled hard, playing a physical but well disciplined game beating the number 1 ranked team 2-1.
Then the Bantam Blues were to face the Garden City Warriors in the Championship Game. Garden City opened the scoring 2 minutes into the first, only to be answered by Hunter Lancia with a great feed from Jesse Davis 3 minutes later. The game would stay tied 1-1 in an incredible back-and-forth game until 7 minutes left in the third when Garden City scored to make it 2-1. Again, not to be counted out, the Blues continued to battle hard and after some great work down low by Hunter Lancia and Jesse Davis, the puck came out to a pinching Justin Larsh who skated into the slot and let go a hard slapshot that beat the goalie over his right shoulder. The game would stay tied 2-2 through the final 2:30 left in regulation and then through a 5 minute sudden victory overtime.
The championship was then to be decided by a shootout. Garden City started the shootout scoring with their first shooter. The Blues answered back as Louis Disalvo dangled the goalie back into his net and scored with a backhand shot. Scott Van Tuyl was able to turn aside the second Garden City shooter. Then Luke Gustin stepped up as the second shooter and calmly skated down to the goalie and slid a backhand shot through his five hole. With the game on the line, the third Garden City shooter was unable to solve our goaltender and the Blues won 3-2 (2-1 in the shootout)!
Congratulations to all of the boys on their never-quit attitude and to work so hard to bring another Championship home to Dundas!
Team members from left to right include:
Front Row: Scott Van Tuyl
Second Row: Noah Doan, Louis Disalvo, Hunter Lancia, Trevor Ward, Jesse Lecker-Fratoni, Will Shaw, Justin Kuhr
Third Row: Jesse Davis, Dylan Dobbs, Brett Parry, Justin Larsh, Luke Gustin, Colton Roberts, Brad Wright, Ethan Truman
Absent: Parsa Norouzian
Team Staff: Lee Wright (asst coach), Mike Gustin (trainer), Dave DiSalvo (asst coach), Brian Parry (head coach)