Hello Otters, I’m still excited about that Sunday final. That incredible game is going to stick with me for a while! I feel lucky to have been there to see it and take photos.

On this page I’ve added a gallery of some of the action photos from the game. In that gallery section I’ve included some photos without watermarks or file numbers, as I did in the last post (  Otters Win  ) which showed the winning goal and awards ceremony. Otters Families, please feel free to download and share those photos as you wish.

The gallery represents only a small selection of the photos taken at the game so if you don’t see your player, or would like to see more of them, please let me know as more photos may be available. The photos here are mainly focused on the Otters in the championship game. I’ll do other posts for the other games, and posts for the other teams too (Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds, Mississippi Thunderkings and Newmarket Redmen).

If you have a Season Pass, I will be filling up your galleries as soon as I get through all the photos from the tournament games.

Before getting to the full gallery section and the story which goes to the media I wanted to pull out some of the photos and add comments.

In this sequence Dylan is on one of his many exciting attacks on net. He very nearly scored on this rush too but the puck skidded along the line and remained out. I love the reaction of the players and the people watching from behind the glass!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The penalty shot. See, Braeden kept his position, was moving the right way and almost had this one!

 

 

 

 

 

When it came time for the Otters to accept their awards each one skated down the line of Puckhounds, shook hands and returned to the Otters line up. I was kneeling on the ice taking photos of the players skating past. Every single Otter knew I was there taking photos but skated by trying to avoid looking my way. They were all business just like when the game is on, focusing on their job and not allowing themselves to become distracted by the photographer. They all did it, but there always has to be the one exception. Sterling! When he skated by me he turned sideways to face me straight on and kept gliding along with thumbs up and a huge smile on his face. What a ham! 🙂  Hey Sterling, you played an awesome game so thumbs up back at ya!

 

 

 

 

Now on to the game story and collection of photos…

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Otters Win The Cup!

During the December 8-10 weekend ten hockey teams from across the province arrived in Huntsville to participate in the 2017 Duke Knox Novice Rep Tournament, an annual contest for some of the best seven and eight year old hockey players in the region. The local Huntsville Otters Aquadome Novice rep team welcomed a few familiar teams from the Muskoka-Georgian Bay area: The Oro Thunder, Penetang Flames and South Muskoka Bears. Arriving from the south were the Dundas Blues, Simcoe Warriors and Newmarket Redmen teams. The North Bay Trappers and Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds made their way down from the north and the Mississippi Thunderkings came all the way from the Ottawa area. Even before the puck dropped on the opening game each team deserved a trophy for successfully managing to fight their way through the first big winter storm of the season to reach the Huntsville Summit Centre!

The Huntsville Otters Aquadome novice rep team met the Newmarket Redmen in the opening game on Friday afternoon and came away with a 7-0 victory. On Saturday morning the Otters won 3-2 in a close match with Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds. The Otters 5-1 win over the Simcoe Warriors on Saturday afternoon earned the home team a spot in the final rounds of the tournament on Sunday.

Early Sunday morning the Otters took on the Mississippi Thunderkings, winning the semi-final game 5-2. With that victory the Otters headed to the final match against the tough Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds, the team the Otters had narrowly beaten in a close earlier round game.

After a few hours rest between games the Huntsville Otters Aquadome novice rep and Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds took to the ice for their epic final game of the tournament.

The championship game began with great excitement and intensity that kept on growing as the game went on. In the first period the Otters Dylan Bennett, known for his unreal speed and stick-handling, had many thrilling scoring chances. He pounded away at the Puckhounds goalie, Keyan Gauthier, who was having a magical game of his own. Temiskaming forwards had great scoring chances too but the Otters defense, Sterling Boothby and Taylor Carnduff, had one of their best games ever and kept breaking up any attacks on their zone. Otters goalie, Braeden Woollings, was rock solid in net so the Puckhounds couldn’t get anything past him either. Each team took minor penalties during the period but the penalty kill was strong so nobody was able to convert. The first period ended scoreless.

In the second period the super-charged Bennett continued to fly and pound pucks at the net while the amazing Gauthier managed to get a pad on everything thrown at him. It was hard to imagine how Bennett could keep up that stunning pace for the entire game but somehow he did and it paid off with a goal, assisted by Carter Quinlan, coming with four minutes remaining in the second period. The arena and Otters bench erupted with excitement on seeing the Bennett puck in the back of the net. A single goal, and with so much time remaining in the game, usually doesn’t generate that sort of response but in a game this tight it felt like one goal might get the job done. But this was an Otters game, and we all know how Otters like adventure and high drama, so there was still lots of excitement to come!

While the Otters celebrated their goal the Puckhounds coaches gathered their players at the bench and gave quick instructions to keep everyone focused on their jobs. When play resumed it was back to the same end-to-end action, exciting scoring chances, great saves and smart defense. Otters Brady Higgs, Carson Frasier and Logan Sheppard created great offense and kept the Temiskaming goalie on his toes.

The level of intensity rose even higher in the third period as the Puckhounds pulled out all the stops in an effort to get the equalizer and the Otters did everything possible to earn an insurance goal. A truly epic battle unfolded. As each minute passed in the third period everyone appeared to work harder, play faster and make better saves and clever plays. With perfection coming from both teams it seemed the difference might come down to who would blink first, make a mistake or get a strange bounce from the puck – but neither team showed any sign of giving an inch.

Finally, with only four and a half minutes remaining in the championship game, Temiskaming got their chance on a clear break-away from just inside centre ice. One of the Otters raced back to catch the Puckhounds player, dove for the puck and ended up taking down the Temiskaming forward. The Puckhounds were awarded a penalty shot.

Otters goalie, Braeden Woollings, did a great job in such a high-pressure situation. The Puckhounds forward moved in for his penalty shot, tried to fake Woollings out of position but the Otters goalie didn’t take the bait. He held his ground and covered as much net as possible. The Puckhound player wound up and blasted a shot high to the blocker side. Woollings moved the right way, and was within millimeters of getting a piece of the puck, but the blast made it through.

In that moment everyone in the building sensed that this had essentially become a sudden death game and that the championship would be decided by the next goal scored. The Otters suffered a scary moment late in the game as one of their key players, captain Carson Frasier, went down hard in one of the corners. It was a relief to see Frasier get up again but at a time like this the team needed 100% of him. It was great to see Frasier take the ice again, even though he was still hurting, to show his team and the spectators that the Otters weren’t done yet! That is one tough Otter!

In the dying minutes of the third period Bennett continued to create incredible scoring chances. On one of his rushes he gained the blue line and blasted a shot from the point ringing the puck off the goal post. A moment later Bennett found himself in a similar position, fired a high shot for one of the corners, and this time the Puckhounds goalie jumped up and just got a shoulder on it to deflect the puck wide of the net. During the action a group of older players from another Otters team gathered at the boards and cheered the novice rep team on. Every time Bennett or Frasier took the ice the older Otters pounded on the glass and let out deafening cheers and screams “Bennnnetttt!” “Fraaaaaaaaaasier!” The Otters had their chances in the final minutes of the third period but the Puckhounds goalie continued to make remarkable saves to keep his team alive.

With only one minute to play in the third period the Otters took a minor penalty. They survived the period but with a minute remaining in their penalty the Otters had to start overtime short-handed. In tournament play the teams play 4-on-4 for the first two minutes of overtime. If the score remains tied they will go to 3-on-3 for the next two minutes of overtime and then to 2-on-2.  In this situation, since the Otters had a player in the box to start overtime, they had to play 3 on 4. It was a most suspenseful moment as everyone realized the next goal would decide it all, and the Otters could only put three players on the ice for the first minute of that overtime period!

To begin overtime the Otters had Brady Higgs, Carson Frasier and Avery Shirtliff on the ice and Braeden Woollings in goal. The ref dropped the puck at centre ice, Shirtliff pounced on the puck and carried it over the Puckhounds blueline. Shirtliff deked a Puckhound player to give himself some room to wind up for a shot. Shirtliff launched a missile from the edge of the face-off circle, from the same position Bennett had also tried many times during the game. Temiskaming’s great goalie was in position, threw out up his glove hand to catch the shot but it whizzed past and buried itself in the back of the net. It was over. At 16 seconds into overtime the Otters won the championship! Players poured from the bench and threw gloves and sticks into the air before piling onto Woollings. It truly was an extraordinary game from start to finish!

Congratulations to the Huntsville Otters Aquadome Novice rep team for going undefeated in the 2017 Duke Knox tournament! The Otters players are: Dylan Bennett, Sterling Boothby, Taylor Carnduff, Quinten Cool, Weston Earl, Fletcher Elliott, Carson Frasier, Brady Higgs, Warren Neal, Carter Quinlan, Ewan Russell, Logan Sheppard, Avery Shirtliff, Chayse Woods and Braeden Woollings. The Otters coaches, trainers and managers are: Jon Quinlan, Ryan Woollings, Jeff Higgs, Craig Frasier, Jason Bennett and Tanya Neal.