Roth Diamond Tools Hawks in Tri-County showdown

The Roth Diamond Tools minor bantam AE Hawks were in a sudden victory showdown game for the Tri-County championship at the Brampton Memorial Arena in late March.

March 27 saw Roth Diamond Tools minor bantam AE Hawks in a sudden victory showdown game for the Tri-County championship at the Brampton Memorial Arena.

After many hotly contested games in the regular season and OMHA round robin it came down to one game to settle the final series.

The first period started with solid play by both teams until Brampton counted the a goal at 6:03. Off the ensuing faceoff James Harkins worked the puck smartly ahead to Kyle Sammut who found J.T. Gore who made no mistake putting the Hawks in flight. A minute and a half later David Rothfuchs was the playmaker feeding Brandon Richard who in turn found linemate Giancarlo Cianflocca open for the fine finish.

The icing on the cake for an excellent opening period occurred with less than one minute left. "The Moose" Tyler Symonds gained the zone and executed a spinnerama backhand pass to Cam Miller who provided a mirror image behind the back pass to Christian Bonaldi. Christian then deftly deked the Brampton keeper for the Hawks third goal.

In the second it was Symonds starting a play in the defensive zone to Ryan Rausch and Cody Ruff freeing "The G Man" Cianflocca who wristed in a dandy. More Hawks action midperiod seemed to put the game away as Cam Miller circled the net and slid one in only to have the ref rule no goal on a blind whistle.This set the stage for the Brampton comeback late in the period when they counted one on a similar play at the Hawks net.

Worthy of note was some fine penalty killing as the Hawks successfully fended off three short-handed situations lead by Nolan Pearce, Ruff, Symonds, Rothfuchs and Chris Scrivo.

Into the third the battle ensured with the Hawks playing a smart intense game controlling the bulk of the play. Things got very interesting when the Battalion pulled within one at 3:17 and got renewed energy. A key moment of the game occurred at 2:29 as Cianflocca strongly contested a puck in front of the Brampton cage drawing a foul and skating away. On the ensuring power play the Hawks dominated the play and drained seconds from the clock. The reward came at the 50 second mark when Richard again found Giancarlo for the magic hat trick goal securing the 5 to 3 victory in front of net minder Nathan Cole.

Tri-County gold was the reward for a fine group of young men as the happy coaching staff of Ron Rothfuchs, Rick Gore, Andrew Pearce, Jordan Rothfuchs and Dave Miller with back up tender Marco Chiechi joined the celebration on ice.

Worthy of special note - three wonderful players were listed on the game sheet but were unable to skate in the last game due to unfortunate injuries sustained. Michael Magliocchi, Alessandro Ristucci and Daniel Butts exemplify the heart and soul of our team and joined the active players on ice to receive their championship metals.

The Hawks also thank Kyle Sammut and Taylor Elkins for joining the squad on numerous occasions to fill in when the bench was short.

Every winning team has the important backing of a generous group of sponsors. The Hawks would like to thank Roth Diamond Tools, Sierra Excavating Inc., Jim Drummond and sons Inc., Brentview Construction, Rotblott and Son, Unimetex, ASRT Lofranco, ANS Contracting, Lynx Trucking Ltd., Lesera Contracting Inc., Anvil Ring Transportation , Downey Brothers Transportation and a fine group of proud parents.

Thanks as well to the Caledon rep hockey executive and the TCMHA executive for their unbelievable contribution of volunteer hours and superb organizing that allows our program to exist. Have a great summer and see you at the rink next time.