Nice gear. M loves Vapor gloves as do most kids.
Vancouver was kind of a bust. The boys went 1-2-1 for fourth out of 8 teams. The first game the went down 5-0 in first period then played that team which won the title to a 2-2 game. It sucked as they just had no jump and had never played together and it took them a bit to gel. The 2nd game they won 7-2.
The 3rd game was the real *****. They tied 5-5 but I and the coaching staff who had a former NHL player on it openly stated we got jobbed. We had so many kids get basically tackled on breakaways or tripped by the last defenseman back it was insane. I had 2 separate parents from the other team say we got screwed. They even gave them a phantom penalty call with 1:50 left of a 5-5 tie game after a brutal non call on a trip where the kid literally stuck his leg out and our kid went airborne. It was so bad we started laughing. As a result of the tie we were not able to play our first opponent again.
The fourth game for 3rd place was against the most heavily penalized team in the tournament. Amazingly in our game against them I think we took more penalties and even had to kill of 1:40 of a 5 on 3. We were the least penalized team in the tournament playing the most penalized team. We had a kid get horse collared in that game get called for interference. With 2
0 left our best defenceman who never said a word or raised his hands was crossed checked in the head comming in as their goalie froze the puck. He was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to offset the other teams penalty. Our coaches damn nearlost their minds. It was a 3-2 game and it looked like we were going to tie it up. After that they just didnt get it done.
As a whole I was very proud of our boys. It seemed like going up there was just an effort in frustration. Wjile many parents were nice I felt the officiating was less then balanced. We didnt ice the best possible team as a few of our best players couldnt go so we ended up with 3 house kids basically. Unfortunately ifwe had the missing 3 kids I dont think the oofficiating would have been a factor. I dont think I would bother going again unless we can ice a true team.
Micah had 3 goals and 2 assists and drew probably 70-75% of the teams power plays. The boy was chopped tackled, tripped and crosschecked so many times driving the net. In the fourth game he was on the ice for the last 4 minutes and busted his a$s trying to get the tie. In the very first game after going down 5-0 he had a beautiful open ice hip check where he flipped the kid and skated straight to the box as the whistle blew. Trying to find video. It was one of those mouth open moments followed by some laughing once the other kid popped back up. One of his coaches in the locker room said it was a great hit and gave the kids a spark.