Well the Wolves returned from Ottawa as World Champs defeating a team from Finland in a shootout in the championship game. A great time and a great tournament.

 

Our group from Seattle included Brian "The Seed" & Sandy Smith, Jack "Mr. Big" Comyn, Bob "HTL" & Mary Jean McMahon, Dwight "Terrible Ted" Perkins, Bill "Boozy" Banfied, Paul "The Chameleon" Faung and Jen McDonald.  We were joined by Bob's brother John McMahon, Mike "Beantown" Boston and Rob Santarossa, all from Windsor and Bob's brother-in-law, Larry Neufeld, from Waterloo.  According to Carha rules we needed 10 skaters so CARHA placed Patrick "The Swede" Pettersson" on our roster. We had Bob, Paul, Jack, Swede, Boston and John up front with Rob, Ted, Billy and Larry on D and The Seed in goal.

 

The Swede came over with his dad's team from Sweden and brought his gear hoping to catch on with a team in the 35+ division. Extremely lucky for him, he was placed on our roster and now is the proud owner of A MAJOR AWARD. The Swede was a blast, kept up drink for drink and then some. In fact, he won the shoes in spite of Billy's best efforts. The Seed started off the Boozy run with a convincing display on Sunday night. We're not sure how he cut his nose and blackened his eyes, but the stories abound. ("I don't remember what happened"). Billy jumped into the fray the next night, literally and figuratively, as he consumed more than his fair share of drinks and then decided he was a tough guy. Mr Big had his night as Boozy as well but the Swede earned BIG marks for consistency and with his package grabbing performance at the awards banquet secured the first Boozy the Clown award for a European.

 

Our first game was against a team from Newmarket. Swede started up front between John and Boston. On the next shift HTL, centering Mr. Big and the Chameleon, scored setting the tone for the game. Wolves win 7-1. Paul Faung won the game MVP award after notching 2 goals and 4 assists. Of the course they overlooked his miss of a completely wide open net with 8 seconds left in the game. Mr. Big picked up a hat trick and Beantown got one to round out the scoring. Seed was stellar in goal, a trend that continued throughout the week.

 

Game 2 vs Kontiolahden Kajastus from Finland. A good team, a big team and a great game. Beantown opened the scoring 4 minutes in but at the end of the first we were down 2-1 as Finland's #15, Timo Turunen, scored a goal and assisted on the second. Easily their best player he was the game MVP and we knew we'd have to pay closer attention to him. The rest of the game was pretty close with the Wolves finally tying the score with HTL converting a great passing combo from Billy and Paul. Game ended in a 2-2 tie and again the Seed played great.

 

Going into game 3 we were tied with the Finnish team in the standings and it looked like it might come down to goal differential if we each one our final game. We played a team from Ottawa while the Finns played a very good team from Quesnel BC. Less than 2 minutes in HTL opened the scoring for the Wolves and we went on to win 8-1 on goals by HTL(2), Rob Santaross(2), Mr Big(2) and Mike Boston(2). Boston also earned the game MVP by getting 3 assists to accompany his pair of goals. Unfortunately, Terrible Ted went down with a hip flexor and would be lost for the rest of the tourney. Only for hockey, not drinking.

 

The Finns beat Quesnel 5-2 and tied for first place with us. We gained the top spot based on goal differential, securing our spot in the championship game. The Finns would have a rematch with Quesnel to see who would earn the second birth in the final.  Similar to their first meeting, the BC boys went up by 2 goals but couldn't hold on and lost again, this time by the score of 5-3. Again #15 for the Finns was dominant.

 

The final game was very exciting. Again ending in a 2-2 tie. Rob scored early in the first to put the Wolves up by one and we contained  #15 throughout the game. After running into, and getting out of penalty trouble mid-way through the final period, we had a 3 minute letdown and ended up down 2-1 with 2 minutes left to play. With under a minute left in the game Seed was pulled for an extra attacker and Mike Boston joined HTL, Paul, Jack, Billy and Rob as they held the puck deep in the Finns zone. With only 36 seconds left Boston scored with HTL and Jack drawing assists and we were headed for a 5 minute overtime. No goals scored in OT. Some big saves on both ends of the ice. We then proceeded to the shootout. 5 shooters each. Rob went first for the Wolves and scored. Jack followed with the same result. Down our end of the ice Seed stoned #15 on their first shot and stopped the second shooter as well. Although HTL scored what proved to be the tournament winning goal on the Wolves next shot, The Finn's Kari Makinen scored as well, as did their fourth shooter, Petri Italia. With Larry missing the Wolves fourth shot, th Wolves were up 3-2 with one shooter remaining for each squad. Boston failed to convert for the Wolves but Seed came up HUGE..... AGAIN.  Wolves win both the shootout and the game 3-2. Rob, Jack and HTL all converting in the shootout for the Wolves. Seed's performance earned him the game MVP.

 

The Seed was great all weekend with 1.50 GAA. Impressive with those magic pads.

Boston and Jack led in goals with 5 each followed by HTL(4), Rob(3) and Paul(2).

Jack, HTL and Rob also tallied in the shootout.

Paul led the team in assists with 6 followed by HTL(5), Jack(4), Billy(3), Boston(3), John(3) & Ted(1)

Overall points leaders were Jack(9) & HTL(9) followed by Boston(8), Paul(8), Rob (3), Billy(3), John(3) & Ted(1)

HTL logged the most time in the box with 6 minutes followed by Swede(4), Larry(4), Paul(2), Ted(2) & Rob(2)

 

CARHA came through with another well run tournament that went very smoothly (Except for a slight problem with transportation on Day 1). We ran into our freinds, The Slackhawks from Delta and had a beer or two with them. Labatt's had give-aways and pub crawls all week. The opening and closing banquets were a lot of fun too. We had a blast all week.

 

Let's do it again in 4 years!