Yesterday, the Bears took on Newcastle Northstars in their bid for the win that would take them to the finals.
Sadly we didn’t make it but what a game it was ! I’m pretty certain that anyone who was there will not have a voice this morning as I sure don’t.
The guys played the game of their lives and fought all the way to the very end. Malcolm Moore was outstanding in goal even though his finger/knuckle was very probably broken after a crash on net by Northstars late in the 2nd period so well done for holding out for us.
The first period saw us 2 – nil down and we went to the break with long faces but plenty of determination.
The 2nd ended with Newcastle on 3 and us with 1, an unassisted goal by Scott and spirits were lifted a bit.
The 3rd was a nail biter for everyone. Bears scored first with James Keating tucking in a nice one assisted by AJ (Andrew Johnson) and Cam Todd. Newcastle didn’t hang around and got another goal not long after. Our guys dug deep and gave us another goal, scored by Scott Clemie, assisted by AJ, but Newcastle seemed to have the upper hand and scored another 2 goals only a minute apart. That left us with less than one minute to go on the clock and the guys gritted their teeth, put their heads down and went all out. Dan Spina gave us a beautiful unassisted goal with 51 seconds on the clock.
The score was 5-4, could we get another?
We sure did, with Scott Clemie scoring an unassisted cracker at 0.30 to equalize the score. The crowd was in a frenzy ! The final buzzer went leaving the score tied at 5 all.
We then had a brief break while the Ref’s had to check the rules to see how the game proceeded from there. It was decided we would play 5 minutes and whoever scored first got the game. That 5 minutes was the longest 5 minutes of my life but we ended up with no goals being scored and went to shoot out.
The 3 shot shootout had everyone on the edge of their seats. They scored, we scored, they scored, we scored, they missed, we missed ! It then went to everyone having a go at the shootout and whichever team scored next would get the game. Sadly for us, Newcastle scored on their first shot.
The Bears can be very proud of the determination and effort shown by the Midget team this season. The guys were fantastic and everyone one of them can hold their heads high knowing they gave it their all. Well done Team, you have Heaton Cup under your belts so let’s go on to next season to get that elusive win.
