I can give more details of the open final. The setting was perfect for a great final. Having met for the first game of the round robin, which ended in a 4-4 tie, the Montreal boys and team WTF matched up very well. Both teams were physically large and fast but the edge probably goes to WTF there. Both teams were comprised of a mix of experienced veterans and young impressionable types, though Montreal’s rookies were probably more used to tournament style play. Montreal probably also had the edge in playing together all coming from one club, where as some of the WTF players met for the first time Friday morning. WTF did a good job coming together and improving their play during the tournament as was apparent in their last two round robin games running rough shod over who would become the 3rd and 4th seeds 10-0 and 12-2.

So the game started as could be expected by these two teams, whose strategy on the strike was the oh so original ram it down your opponents throat, clashed together mid pool and for the first time in the tournament it was apparent we had a team of three competent refs, well awake anyway. The first play stoppage occurred within 10 seconds of the opening buzzer. After a few more calls both teams adapted well and cleaned up some, though I would argue Montreal had some more adapting to do as their particular style of play this tournament included a heavy dose of free hand and plenty of obstruction, though WTF was by no means completely innocent we did try to be good. WTF using speed that would have been impossible to this team in any land based game attacked and attacked and attacked, having an 11 man team made up of 9 natural forwards our best defense would be “as long as we were in there end we don’t need to worry about defense.”

After just a few minutes of back and forth, Montreal was able to strike first and the puck found the WTF bin. Shortly after this while knocking on the end of their goal opposite the sub box WTF was granted an advantage puck from the 5m line. A WTF player politely asked the ref who had made the call “wasn’t that the last man?” Quite obviously leading the unasked question “how’s about a penalty shot for that one eh?” After the “Negative” response from the referee he turned to me and nodded his head “I think it was”… The referee remembers a back and forth confrontation and disagreement about the issue none of the players on WTF witnessed and since the player in question was without a C or VC on the arm to the penalty box he went. However, this precedent seemed to be set there were plenty of other players through the game yelling their displeasure at the calls made it was a one time only call. The next score came several minutes later as WTF had repeatedly put the puck into the Montreal trough until it was seen and called good. Then just moments after the next strike WTF again put the puck past the Montreal defense; however this time we were unable to keep it inside the bin long enough to be seen, thus not called. The puck came back down to our end where several hard attempts at the goal were pushed back to the corner only to have the puck squirt out to the center of the goal area just inside the 3m arc. In a moment of confusion due to the size of the player who had just collected the puck and curled toward open pool, kicking my stick nearly loose from my hand, I thought a Montreal player was one of my own and had eased up my position, letting them score an easy one. 2-1 Montreal. After some very harsh wall play WTF broke loose one last time in the half tying to score 2-2 as we switched ends. A nervous WTF team gathered on the wall at half time hoping our spiritual leader, who had a flight to catch and had promised us one half of play before getting out, would stay for the remainder of the game, nothing was said about this particular situation and our team stayed at 10 players when the second half started. WTF must have been able to harness that nervous energy and let Montreal have it racing up pool on a break away goal… that wasn’t seen by the referees so more back and forth play and the score remained tied. We were able to keep the puck in their end and inevitably scored with about 8 minutes left in the game. At this point our man, late for his flight exited the pool and the team had to move on to plan B, score 3-2. More back and forth play as our team played well with the early loss of a player more a mental problem for our younger players than a real issue. One more push had the puck in the Montreal bin, but the shear number of bodies, at one point there were at least 8 maybe 9 players pushing (and pulling dirty hacks!), before the players stopped fighting and floated to the surface. Since the puck was not resting in the bin as all the players had reacted to but squirted out in front of the goal lip an equal puck was called by the three men with orange gloves who were all shaking their heads and covering their eyes indicating the only thing they could see were bubbles. In the closing minutes, Montreal was able to mount an impressive attack down the solid pool wall opposite the subbing area, after a couple of waves of attackers break down our defense, and put one away. Tie game 3-3. Nothing more eventful would happen to close regulation so off to overtime we went.

As Duck pointed out earlier due to time constraints, of which we did not care about any more since we’d already lost our player, right to sudden death. The puck spent most of the time over the next few minutes back and forth along the temporary wall in front of the subbing areas distorting the wall and traveling from our corner to theirs. Amazing how, since Calgary Worlds I’ve been trying really hard to clean-up my game and now it is effort and work I didn’t have time for to use my free hand in the way these young French-canucks were able to do. Oh to be that arrogant dirty hack again sure would have been beneficial this tournament. Eventually the puck found its way down the end wall to the lip of our goal, bodies came, bodies went, and a foul was called. Referee discussion… penalty shot. I almost inked in the pool. A quick look at our team to try and determine who the natural choice to defend this is. My brother? Hmmmm… quick hands only true back on the team, but his strength’s lie in the open pool. Rhett? Very good hands, but still a bit rusty, and his strength has always been scoring goals not stopping them… François would have been a good choice, had he not been headed to the airport… Clark? I’ll ask him, the deer in the headlights look that comes back and a whimpering no is the answer I not so surprisingly received. With just a bit of experience he would have been the best choice, but his total lack of confidence on the subject left me hanging on the wall, alone. While somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard a voice yell… YOU CAN DO IT!!!! I looked at the offenders across from me, floating there in the position I felt so comfortable in, trying to put myself in their mind and figure what they wanted to do.
“I’m familiar with one of my opponents, Seb, strangely I didn’t pay any attention to the second attacker, Seb was going to take the puck. He wants to go to his left I’m sure of it. I’ll line up on that side of the goal and give him a bit more goal to his right, maybe it’ll tempt him and cause him to second guess his plan and delay his attack by half second. The second attacker is lining up on his left shoulder,… they’re going for my feet… I know where the puck is going to go, all I have to do is get down and get set before they can touch the puck.” At the buzzer the three of us drop toward the bottom, and Seb takes possession and immediately takes a half kick toward his left to let the long flick fly. I rocket to the puck as quick as I can and I stuff it!!! I got it!!! I’m amazed!!! And in that same instant a shoulder slams straight into my nose crossing my eyes, all momentum I had gone. Where’s the puck??? There it is just to my right, out of Seb’s reach and at the hip of the second attacker. He reaches back and I lunge toward it, I catch just a piece of it again, but only enough that the forces of both our efforts slide the puck just out of my reach under his body as he swims it in… game over 4-3 bad guys.

All and all a great tournament and one of the most fun teams I’ve ever played with. Our Veterans all agreed how we would play, even though some of them didn’t know each other until the start of the tournament. Our rookies were just wide-eyed sponges ready to do whatever they were told, and at maximum effort. As I said we had 11 so someone had to sit every game, and to a man not a single player was content sitting any of the games. I don’t think I have ever been on a team in any tournament that was so completely disappointed with a second place. You would have thought we were dead last, what a great group of competitors.

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An aquifer is a water bearing layer of rock or soil. Aquifers are separated by impermeable layers of rock or clay called an aquitard. Aquitard, however may sound a bit offensive to some, and therefore we will be changing the name to Aquachallenge.