OMHA Champions - A Day We Will Never Forget!, News, U13 BB, U13, 2022-2023 (Clarington Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2022-2023 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Apr 05, 2023 | Mandy Armstrong | 863 views
OMHA Champions - A Day We Will Never Forget!
Sunday April 2, 2023 will forever be a day ingrained in the hearts and minds of the U13BB Clarington Toros family.  Yes, I said family.  As a parent, but also getting the opportunity to see behind the scenes, I've watched this group of young men overcome many hurdles throughout this season, but they bought into the program and from day 1 had the goal in mind to become OMHA Champions and that's exactly what they achieved!




The first half of the season had our team sitting near the bottom of the standings with a record of 3-9-4. It was the lowest point of the season, but the boys never gave up and continued to follow the program put into place by the coaches and bench staff.  And when I say program, I mean both on and off the ice, something I've never seen before. Teaching them the game, teaching them the mental game, providing them strategies along the way and bringing in a buddy system to help them grow to trust each other and become a tight knit family.

The new year arrived and shortly after that so did a new team.  The 2nd half of the season saw these lads pump out an impressive record of 11-2-2.

And then it was off to the playoffs where the team had to face the Oshawa Generals, a team who they lost previously to 9-2.  But that didn't stop these boys. They fought hard and it came down to an added tie-breaker game against Oshawa to determine who would go on to represent at the OMHA's.

These boys dug deep, played their hearts out and after a nail-biting game, came out with an OT win of 2-1! What they had already accomplished was amazing, but they weren't done!

Heading to the OMHA's in Windsor, the boys finished the Round Robin with a 2-1-0 record, which secured their spot to the Semis where they would face Guelph. This team had handed it to us in a previous tournament (twice) and were by far the better team at that time. But that didn't stop our boys who came out flying, popped in 2 straight to take the lead.  Guelph marched back and took a 3-2 lead, however the Toros weren't done and they came through with a game tying goal! 

And there we found ourselves again, in OT!  We took down the Guelph Gryphons with a beautiful OT goal that brought us to the finals.

Leading into the finals we would face the undefeated (in regular season and at the championships) Barrie Colts who handed us our only loss in the tournament. It was 3-0.It was a tight game with both teams fighting hard and Barrie managed to get one in during the 2nd period.  But again, these boys were not willing to go without a fight and managed to tie it up.  With 4 minutes left, the hockey gods sprinkled a little gold medal dust from the rafters and we sniped a beauty of a goal to make it 2-1.  Our boys hung on and fought hard to keep their lead and as the last 6 seconds ran out, the unbelievable happened.

The Clarington Toros U13BB team made their goal come true. They became the CHAMPIONS!

And as their motto from Day 1...WHO ARE WE? WE ARE CHAMPIONS!

A proud moment that the coaches, staff, players, parents (THE FAMILY) will NEVER forget.



 
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