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August 7, 2002
By Jim Anderson
Day 12 Wrap Up: Pines Thunder wins Cub
All Playoffs, all the time at NARCh
|  Pines Thunder set the tone for yet
another day of exceptional play over
the course of the tournament.
Early round playoffs..
Mites:
#2 AMB defeated #7 LaVerne Empire
91 and the #3 Tour Powerhouse
bested the #6 LI Royals and #4 OC
Blades Black held off a tough #5
Team Hyper by a 5-4 score to
advance to the Mite Semifinals.
#1 Seed CPH Mission Velocity was
awaiting the OC Blades Black. Not
having to play a morning game
allowed CPH to be well rested and
they needed every last bit of it to
outlast the Blades in OT, 3-2. It's the
first time since 1997 that the Blades
aren't in the Mite Final.
#2 AMB was facing off against #3
Tour Powerhouse at the same time
and the boys from Ontario continue
to be the offensive juggernaut, as
they won 6-1.
#1 CPH will have a tough opponent
in tomorrow's final vs #3 Tour
Powerhouse. If the Powerhouse
score early, it could be the key to their
victory. A tighter low scoring game
favors CPH.
Squirts:
#7 CPH Mayhem just didn't have it
this AM as they fell to #!0 Team Eagle
BC 7-1.
#8 Snipers fell to #9 CPH Wild 4-2 in
the other first round playoff game.
Quarterfinals:
#1 OC Blades Black vs #10 Team
Eagle BC
The Blades scored early and often
and Team Eagle couldn't match their
earlier offensive output as the Blades
cruised to a 7-1 win.
#2 AMB 89 vs #9 CPH Wild
Same situation here as the Bulldogs
just controlled the play from the start
and won 4-2.
#3 St. Louis Tour Blast 89's vs #6
Rapid Fire Tour Dragons. A bad
matchup for the Dragons and the
Blast pulled away for a 7-3 victory
#4 Tour Powerhouse vs #5
Cavewear Cavemen, the
Powerhouse played better D and
won this battle 9-4. Pretty rare to see
13 goals in a squirt quarterfinal. A
little under 2 min per goal.
Semi's: tomorrow
#1 OC Blades Black vs #4 Tour
Powerhouse. Powerhouse will have
to continue putting up the offensive
#'s while trying to shore up a bit
defensively. It's going to be hard to
win if they allow 4 goals.
#2 AMB 89 vs #3 St. Louis Tour Blast
89's, Blast are a dangerous seed
here..rolling through the Dragons
and avoiding the top seed OC
Blades.
NARCh Cub Final
#1 Pines Thunder vs #2Team Tour
Detroit
Florida wins the Cub Final for its 2nd
straight year as the Cub's combine
for 9 goals between them and
provide some extra entertainment as
it went into OT. Pines Thunder
scored the game winner and soon
after the rink was littered with sticks,
gloves, etc. as they celebrated their
5-4 victory.
Bantam's
First Round Playoffs
#5 Tour Bandits def #12 Tour
Mavericks, 4-1
#6 Red Army def #11 St. Louis Tour
Blast, 7-4
#7 AMB 86 def # 10 Tour
Powerhouse, 8-0
#8 Mission Empire Snipers def #9
Tour Rebels, 7-1
Quarterfinals
#1 OC Blades Black vs #8 Mission
Empire Snipers. The addition of Pat
Cannone after the first day of prelims
gave the Snipers another scoring
threat after Andrew Olivieri, who has
just been tearing it up. Jared Gibo
has been a driving force for OC, who
seem to always be in the important
games. Also a good matchup
between 2 coaches who have won
numerous titles, with Tim McManus
(Snipers) holding the edge. For the
first 21 or so minutes it looked as if
the Snipers would win the game,
taking a 3-0 lead. As any hockey
player knows, a 3 goal lead is the
hardest to hold. Sure enough OC
came back with 2 quick goals,
trailing by one with less than 2
minutes to go. in the final 20
seconds, Pat Cannone missed an
open net shot just to the left and AMB
had one last shot, they made the
most of it to send it into OT, scoring
with 5 seconds left on the clock. In
OT it was all OC in the beginning as
they just missed on numerous
scoring chances and the Sniper
goalie started to regain his form,
culminating with a huge glove save
from the slot and the crowd let out a
collective gasp/groan depening on
which side you were rooting for...
Nearly halfway through, Andrew
Olivieri found some open space in
the slot and ripped a shot past the
OC goalie, accounting for all his
team's goals in the 4-3 OT win.
Anaheim Mission Bulldogs faced off
in the other semifinal, 85's vs 86's in
a bragging rights matchup. Despite
the lower seed, the bigger floor
seemed to be a better fit for the 86's
throughout the last couple of days. It
was a tight matchup, 1-1 at the half
and then the 85's seemed to get a bit
winded, missed a couple chances
and the 86's capitalized beating the
big brother, 3-1.
#3 Mission Honeybaked 85 took on
#6 Red Army, who many thought
could be in the championsip. With
24 teams in the Bantams though, a
tie in the prelims dropped them to
the #6 spot and they faced a tougher
road. Honeybaked jumped out to an
early lead and the Red Army could
never get close enough to get a
momentum shift. Honeybaked has
obviously learned their lesson after
an 8-1 lead vs the Tour Mavericks
turned into an 8-6 nailbiter on the first
day of play. TJ Hensick once again
leads the Rollin Hogs into the
semi's.
Semifinals:
#3 Mission Honeybaked 85 vs #8
Mission Empire Snipers
Hensick and Sciba vs Olivieri and
Cannone, shades of Atlanta when
Cianfrani/Scheer faced off against
Gauthier/Hollweg in perhaps one of
the best bantam games of all time.
Probably the best game tomorrow for
one on one battles.
#4 Hyper Metro Storm vs #7 AMB 86
AMB 86 will have to guard against a
letdown after such a big victory
against their own 85's. One of 2
things happen here.they either use it
as a springboard or come out flat.
Varsity Cup:
Semi's:
#1 Santiago 1 def Francis Howell N.
Knights, 5-2 and #2 Varsity Blues
held off a determined #3 Dana Hills
Dolphins team by a 3-2 score.
Final:
#1 Santiago 1 vs #2 Varsity Blues
Despite their slip up vs Oakville,
Santiago has shown itself to be the
team to beat, Varsity Blues will have
their hands full, however if they win,
there will be no doubts to the
strength of their squad.
Wrapping up tomorrow.
Mite/Squirt and Bantam All Star
Games and all games tomorrow
coming from the big rink and NARCh
TV.
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