Beast Prospects bring home Silver in Repentigny “Minor Hockey World Championships” after a thrilling shoot-out!

The Beast Prospects traveled to Montreal to participate in the 16 team Repentigny World Minor Hockey championships on the May 1st to May 3rd weekend. The Beast team had only been together for two on ice practice sessions and were combined with four talented players from the Ottawa region for this first of three elite spring tournaments.

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On ice for the first time together, the Beasts squeak through game one with a 1-0 win over Montreal Performance Plus. Short a couple forward positions for game one, the team struggled a little to find team synergy but a late third period goal by Heardy got the initial win and a good start to the tournament. With opening jitters out of the way, Beasts now faced what was likely going to be the game breaker to the Semi-finals. Montreal Ice Storm Black, always known for fielding a top team was the Beasts next victim. The Beast quickly grabbed a two goal lead and looked like they were going to run away with it. But a couple turn overs and Montreal tallied back and tied it up. The Beast scored once more before leaving the ice for a flood between the second and third periods. This was going to be a real test for the Beasts. Many of the kids hadn’t played serious hockey since mid March and with a 6-8 week lay off conditioning was a real factor in game one but in game two the Beast came on strong and scored three in the third to win 6-2 over the Ice Storm.

The Beast headed back to the hotel for some dinner and social time before hitting the hay for day two.

The next day the Beasts met Boston Team X. Little was known about this team other then you could see the player’s winter pants showing through from teams like the Boston Minuteman. The Beasts skated to a 5-0 lead after two periods. The clock was run-time in the third period. After a quick 6th goal the Boston team started to take runs at our club. The refs smartly called the game after a number of incidents lead to only a few minutes actually being played and the Beast secured a 6-0 win.

The final round robin game was against Vermont Bobcats. The Beasts handily beat them 9-0 in a one sided affair.

Day three was going to be tough. The Beast had finished top place in pool B and had the best record across both pools with a 4-0 record and 22 goals for with 2 against. Montreal Metro JPL Prospects had the same record but the Beasts had won 9 out of 12 periods versus 8 out of 12 for the JPL team. In Pool A, Vipers had finished first with 3 wins and a tie and New Brunswick VRED second with 3 wins and loss.

The Beasts crossed over for the semi’s to play the VRED team. The boys were pumped up since some of the players from both clubs play winter hockey together in Ottawa. The Beasts opened with the first two goals and dominated the 1st period but couldn’t get that back-breaker third goal. In the second the VRED found two and tied it up before the Beasts scored late in the period. Again the Beasts faced a similar position as they did against Montréal Ice Storm. 3-2 lead with one period to play. The Beast came out strong and scored two more in the third. The VRED goalie stood on his head to keep the game from getting too one sided. The final score 5-2 for the Beasts.

The finals match was between Montreal Metro – JPL Prospects and the Beasts. Both teams had dominated opponents on way to the finals. The Beasts had racked up 27 goals for and 4 against while JPL Prospects had 27 and 5.

The kids were all announced individually with a light and smoke show followed by Oh Canada. There was no need to pump the boys up for this one. The air beamed with intensity. The Montreal team quickly grabbed a one goal lead and the Beast came back with one. Montreal scored again and the Beast matched them. Montreal Scored their third the Beast matched them again leading to the Break for period 3. Both teams were big, fast and could move the puck and played with exceptional tempo. Almost all the goals came off exceptional specialty team play. Neither team was prepared to give up a penalty or you would pay. The game ended 3-3 and was followed by another 10 minutes of over time which ended 3-3.

The game would now be settled by a five man shoot-out. We picked our five shooters and decided to go first by choice as the home team. We scored on our first shot, Montreal scored on their third. It came down to Montreal's last shooter with it all tied at 1-1. With an enormous amount of pressure on him, the young Montreal player and clearly their top player sealed the win with a nice goal.

You'll have to go a long ways to see two better teams then what played in this tournament's championship game. A shoot out to finish a championship doesn’t do the game true justice. Both teams were winners and can feel very proud of their efforts!

The Beasts players did win tournament MVP awards - congrads Riley and goalie MVP - congrads Bails. We had five players in the top 15 tournament scorers and had 3 players selected to the tournaments All-Star team congrads - Zach, Jeffrey and Riley.

The coaches would like to thank all the parent and players for a tremendous weekend of hockey and fun. The Beasts talent showed through and they played with their hearts and passion, were all very proud of them!