Caledon tyke Hawks win it all!

After a long season of hard work and determination, the Caledon tyke 1 Hawks, sponsored by Ontario Flooring and Nuforce Electrical, made history by winning the TriCounty championship against the Guelph Storm March 24.

From the start of the season it was pretty clear that the young Hawks had something special in the

works but even the staunchest of supporters would not have predicted a sweep of the favoured Guelph Storm by Caledon in two games straight during the championship round of the playoffs.

The win for Caledon is significant and will be the first time ever that Caledon tykes will have a championship banner displayed at Mayfield arena to celebrate the achievement.

Game one of the TriCounty finals vs. the Guelph Storm took place Tuesday, March 21 at Mayfield arena in Caledon. It was standing room only at the Hawks nest and the crowd was all fired up to cheer on the hometown Hawks as they took to the ice. It was a best two out of three series so the winner of this tilt would definitely have the upper hand in winning it all.

Early in the first period it was all Guelph as their star player scored for them on the first shot of the game. The Hawks were not to be outdone as Josh Hall almost tied it up late in the period on a nice individual effort.

The score after the first period was 1-0 for the visiting Storm. The Hawks kept all cylinders firing as they scored on their first shot of the second thanks to Zachary Lyons beating the goalie five-hole with a little Bobby Orr like effort as he was being tripped from behind. Assists went to Jack Jacome and Josh Hall. Guelph answered right back with two goals of their own to give them the 3-1 lead.

Late in the 2nd period, Liam Winslow took a nice pass from Brett Murray and went in alone to score and keep the Hawks in the game.

Guelph came to play and struck first in the third to move ahead 4-2. Julian Bozzo answered right back with a nice top-shelf goal for Caledon off a nice pass from Landen Bayes. With newfound momentum, Caledon kept pressing as Jack Jacome tied the game 4-4 on a great individual effort.

The game came down to the wire when Brett Murray scored off a nice pass from Jacome to give Caledon the lead. Evan Barlow had crease duties for the Hawks and made a number of amazing saves at the end of the game to give Caledon the win.

The second game of the series had the Hawks heading west to Guelph to take on the Storm in front of another packed house. Caledon had the edge going into game two as it was do or die for Guelph.

Early in the game things looked bleak for Caledon as Guelph scored a fluky goal that caught Hawks goalie Nicholas Biamonte by surprise. Both teams played hard throughout the game and Caledon finally tied it when Zachary Lyons took a shot after a scramble in front of the net to tie it for the

Hawks. With less than five minutes to go in the game, Guelph looked to go ahead but Hawks goaltender Nicholas Biamonte made an amazing glove save to keep the Hawks in the game and give the boys an opportunity to win it all. After some strong play at both ends of the ice, Caledon scored the final goal of the game with Zachary Lyons finding the net again from just a few feet inside the blue line. Lyons goal was assisted by Brett Murray and Jack Jacome and it was all Caledon needed to win the game and the championship series.

The Hawks team lined up for their championship medals on Guelph ice but the cheering Caledon fans and parents that made the trip to Guelph made the boys feel as if they were right at home.

The key to the tyke 1 Hawks success in 2005/2006 was that they never gave up and learned to play together as a team. Each and every Hawk should be proud of what they accomplished this season and the experiences they had will be looked upon fondly for years to come.

The parents of the Hawks would like to once again thank the coaching staff for their dedication throughout the season: head coach Terry McLean and assistant coaches Dave Jacome, JJ Lyons and Sean Winslow. A special thanks also goes out to their main jersey sponsors

NuForce Electrical and Ontario Flooring as well as team managers Shazan Ali, Carmine Bozzo and Karen Luzar. The winning tyke Hawks included (back, to r) Julian Bozzo, Zachary Lyons,

Jonathan Ferguson, Liam Winslow, Josh Hall, Jacob Lapalme, (middle) Mathew

D'urzo, Brody McLean, Jack Jacome, Landen Bayes, Mitchell Luzar, Brett Murray,

Franco Zuccato, (front) Brandon Covre, goaltenders Evan Barlow and Nicholas

Biamonte.