14U#1 Wins Round Robin - Play in Quarter Final

The holiday season has come and gone and in between Christmas and New Years the TI U14 #1 team made the annual pilgrimage to Connecticut for the 19th Annual Polar Bear Tournament. Coach Zeke and the girls viewed this as their first big test against the perennially strong east coast teams. Our first game was set for Saturday morning against the Middlesex Islanders. The Islanders jumped out to a 2-0 lead early but TI fought back and won the game 3-2. Our second game on Saturday was against another Massachusetts team the Boston Terriers. Going into the tournament our scouting reports (okay, surfing the net for info) said that the Terriers were the strongest team in their league which included the Middlesex Islanders. With this in mind the  girls rested throughout the day and came ready to play and boy did they play beating the Terriers in convincing fashion 6 to 2. The team's third game in the round robin was scheduled for Sunday night vs. the New Jersey Colonials. After spending the day shopping or watching movies the girls came out ready to play. From the drop of the puck the TI girls controlled the game allowing NJ only 6 shots the entire game. TI won the game 4 to 0 and earned a birth in the quarter finals the next night against the home team CT Polar Bears. With the quarter finals not until 7PM on Monday evening most the girls spent the day watching their fellow TI teams play their games. As the game approached their minds turned to playing hockey. The Polar Bears scored first with a high corner shot that hit the post and deflected in for a 1-0 lead. As the game proceeded the TI team found themselves playing short handed quite a bit as they amassed 7 penalties to the Polar Bears 2. The TI girls out shot the Polar Bears in a hard fought game but the Polar Bear goal tender was hot and stopped every shot resulting in the teams first loss to a girls team 2 to 0. 

Returning from CT the U14 #1 team enters January with a very busy schedule as they complete their NIHL league schedule, play 5 MWEHL games and travel to Detroit to compete in the Golden Blades Tournament. February brings the final MWEHL weekend followed by the league playoffs. The team will spend 3 weekends out of 4 in Detroit playing hockey but that is what it is all about, spending time with our kids watching them play the sport they love.