. . . . .
Midland, July 2, 2006
In their very first ever tournament, in Midland, the Bantam Fury came out as
Consolation Champions. Having just played
two games ever (two losses to Clarington Gaels last week) the team came out
flying to open the tournament against the host team Midland Hawks. The Fury dominated every aspect of the game
winning 6-3. The Fury out-hit,
out-hustled, and out shot the Hawks 33-6.
Scoring for The Fury were Brad Evans with 2 goals, Steven Junkin had a
goal and an assist. Adding goals were
Corey Fargo, Greg O'Neill, and Josh Gilmore.
Eric Smith added an assist. In
goal was Luke Smith.
In the second game of the round robin, the Fury played
Mimico with different results. Again the
Fury outplayed their opponent but couldn't get the breaks - hitting goal posts and
cross bars and on the short end of the officiating - out shooting Mimico
30-19. A final score of 5-1 in a losing
effort was not indicative of the play of the game, which also got heated near
the conclusion. With a 1:03 remaining, a Mimico player instigated
an altercation with the Fury's Brad Evans, who had been dominating the play in
the two games to that point, and was the Fury's leading scorer in the
tournament, with three goals. Evans was
ejected from the game with a major penalty and subsequently suspended from the
following game. The Mimico player ended
up with a 2 minute minor. The game ended
with 3 players from each team in the penalty box. The lone goal for the Fury was scored by
Evans with an assist to Mark Smith. In
goal was James Puffer.
After the 2 game round robin play, all 4 teams ended up
with 1 win and 1 loss records. The tie
breaker used the goal differential method.
Mimico and Kingston each had +1 differential and Midland and The Fury had -1. Thus the Championships were decided, Mimico
vs Kingston for the Championship and Midland vs The Fury for the Consolation.
In the Consolation game, it was a different Midland Hawks
team than the Fury faced earlier in the day.
The Hawks outplayed the Fury, out shooting them in the first period 11-7
and scoring one goal. The second period
continued with the Fury struggling and the Hawks dominating taking a commanding
3-0 lead with goals at 1:44 and 3:00.
The Fury couldn't solve the Hawks goalie until the 5:56 mark on a goal by Corey Fargo (assisted
by Junkin). This gave the Fury some life
and some needed momentum. The second
period ended with the Fury down 3-1, but out shooting the Hawks 11-9. The third period saw the Fury come to life,
scoring 15 seconds in, cutting the score to 3-2, on an unassisted goal by Mark Smith. They then tied the game at 5:48 with a goal by Kenny Bartley
(assisted by O'Neill). The Fury took
their first lead of the game making it 4-3 with just under 6 minutes remaining
on his second goal of the game by Fargo (unassisted). The lead was short lived, as the Hawks tied
it 4-4, 43 seconds later. The score
remained 4-4 until the last seconds of the game - Fargo found himself on a rare breakaway
and scored the winning goal, his third of the game (unassisted), with 21
seconds remaining. Fury out shot the
hawks in the third period 8-4 for a final total of 26-24. Having their busiest game of the tournament,
the goaltending duties were shared, with Luke Smith playing periods one and
two, and James Puffer playing the third.
Congratulations to the Fury winning their first game ever,
and for being the Consolation Champions in their first tournament ever.
