Hamilton Steel Classic Tournament, News, U13 AAA Soo Jr. Greyhounds, U13, 2024-2025 (Sault Major Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2024-2025 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Dec 13, 2024 | James Neufeld | 245 views
Hamilton Steel Classic Tournament
The U13 AAA Soo Jr Greyhounds (“Hounds”) traveled to the Hamilton Steel AAA tournament on the December 6-8 weekend.

The Hounds first opponent was against the Guelph Gryphons. The Hounds brought early pressure and had a number of chances in the crease, but game was tight throughout and the Hounds ultimately squeaked away with a 2–0 victory.

In Game 2, the Hounds had a late start time of 9 PM against the Oakland Jr Grizzlies. The Hounds were leading 2-1 when a last second shot ultimately found its way to the back of the net with 6 seconds left, thereby denying the Hounds a victory and leaving the Hounds at one win and one tie after day 1.

Saturday brought about further important games, with the Hounds winning a resounding victory against the Windsor Jr Spitfires by beating them 8–0.

In the final game of the round robin, the Hounds played the Buffalo Regals and could have advanced directly to the semifinals with a win.  The Regals played the Hounds very tough, wanting to “Beat the Soo” and pucks were not bouncing the Hounds way, resulting in a 3–2 loss.

This led the Hounds in the quarterfinals rather than a bye to the semifinals directly. If the Hounds wanted to hoist the championship, it was going to take 3 games on Sunday. 

The quarterfinal matchup was against a very strong and talented Waterloo Wolves team that the Hounds beat earlier this year 3 - 2. The Hounds were ultimately successful in winning the quarterfinals 2–0 in a hard fought and tight affair.

Having not received the automatic semifinal bye, this left the Hounds playing the highly ranked and very talented Don Mills Flyers. Don Mills was undefeated in the round robin and was the number one seed. In an extremely tough matchup, the Hounds converted a power-play goal and were able to hold for a 1-0 victory.

The Hounds still had worked to do and the well rested Guelph Gryphons were waiting for them in the finals.  In the finals, the Hounds were able to jump to a 2–0 lead before Guelph came storming back with 3 goals and little time left in the 3rd period. With about 2 minutes left, the Hounds were able to get a puck on net, which was tipped once or twice before hitting the back twine, leaving the game at 3-3 and headed for overtime.  The Hounds, tired and worn down from more than 9 periods of hockey in less than 9 hours, were able to convert an incredible double overtime to win the coveted AAA Hamilton Steel tournament.

It is quite the incredible accomplishment to say the least. The players and coaches and families will remember this day and these wins for a long time. The Hounds played 7 games in 48 hrs and 11 periods of hockey just on Sunday!!!!

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