Congratulations to the Millbrook Atom LEO team that won the ''EE'' Championship in the 54th Annual Atom LiftLock Tournament on Sunday morning in a nail biter over Lindsay!
The Millbrook stars started the tournament on Thursday night and ended up playing five game in four days. No easy task for an 11 player team. They finshed the the round robin 3-0, in 3 very close games. The semifinal was even closer going to overtime to settle it against Ennismore. Off to the championship on Sunday morning at the Memorial Centre!
The boys were really fired up for the final game and you could tell that they were focused. There were some butterflies in the room and I was as nervous as anyone, but once they hit the ice for the first shift the butterflies were gone. They had one goal in mind and they never gave up, even when down a couple of goals against a very good Lindsay team.
It was nearly a scoreless first period until Lindsay netted one with 7 seconds left. Millbrook did not give up and tied it up early in the second period. Lindsay then turned it on and got a couple of quick goals with some hard work and got the edge 3-1. Millbrook, bolstered by the sea of Millbrook fans that made the roadtrip to the Memorial centre, responded by getting one late in the second to make it a one goal game. That set the stage for a dramatic comeback in the third. But Lindsay would have none of it and had several good scoring chances of their own. Millbrook stuck to the gameplan playing a mix of ferocious forechecking, sound defence and great goaltending to keep the deficit to one goal. Millbrook's persistence paid off and they scored an early third period goal to tie it at 3-3. The next goal was going to be huge. You could feel the tension in the air, it was a "next goal wins" situation. Both teams traded scoring chances in the third, then it happened. Millbrook got the go ahead goal on an innocent looking rebound with just under 5 minutes to go. Millbrook's commitment to team defence was once again put to the test. The boys responded with the strongest 4 and half minutes they have played all year, and despite Lindsay throwing everything they had at Millbrook, our boys were able to withstand it and earn the championship.
I am extremely proud of the effort that went into this tournament. We had a gameplan and everyone played an important role on the team. Without the efforts of every single player we would not have won. All of the players should be very proud of what they have accomplished.
Way to go boys!!
Marc Doucet
Atom Coach
