Caledon Blackhawks Atom Selects win fifth championship

Mayor Marolyn Morrison and Dufferin - Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones were on hand Saturday to help Bolton Tennis Club members celebrate the trillium grant that enabled them to resurface their courts. They are seen here with Jamie Ure, club public relations director; Julio DiCresce, president; Barnie Seguin, treasurer; and Ron Wise.

The Aspen Architectural Millwork/Cucci's Hair Salon and Day Spa/RBC Insurance Caledon atom Blackhawks entered the Bolton Masters Tournament and skated away with their fourth tournament championship recently.

Their first opponent was Faustina, and Caledon's David Rebelo scored the only two goals of the game with Riley Telfer, Kyle Hauck and Jesse Gatt assisting.

The next game against Niagara proved to be a tougher match. After a scoreless first period, Niagara took the lead early in the second period. But as before, the Blackhawks' defence and goalies shut down the opposing team's offence, not allowing them to pull further ahead. Rebelo responded later in the period to tie the game, with assists going to Philip Iozzo and Jacob Voogel. One minute later, Gatt put the Blackhawks in the lead with help from Shane Sommers and Telfer. An insurance goal by Iozzo in the third period iced the game, assisted by Michael Arena and Rebelo.

The semi-final game saw Caledon go up against the team from Flamborough. The Blackhawks got on the score sheet first when Voogel, from Rebelo and Telfer, put them in the lead in the first on a shot from the blue line that found its way through many bodies and into the back of the net. In the second, Flamborough tied the game and that was all the scoring for the rest of the game. Five minutes of overtime solved nothing and the game went into suddendeath shoot out. While Ernesto Colacito stood strong and played the Flamborough shooter perfectly to stop him, Telfer skated down on the opposing goalie and scored sending the Blackhawks into the rematch of last year's final that the Blackhawks lost. It was a hotly contested game that ended scoreless after three periods thanks to Matthew Campanella and the Guelph net minder. Overtime would not decide this game either, so it was off to sudden-death shoot out again. Telfer was called upon again to shoot first for Caledon. As the skaters moved in Campanella patiently waited for the Guelph shooter to make his move and made a textbook stop. At the same time Telfer skated toward the Guelph goalie and almost identical to his previous shootout winner, beat the goalie and scored on a backhand shot for the game winner and tournament championship.

An awesome year! First in league play, league champions, four tournament titles and an overall record of 43 wins, seven losses and nine ties in 59 games.

The team and parents would like to thank the coaching staff for all their time and dedication: Tom Mathieson, Bruce Anderson, Jeff Hauck, Rick Gatt and Bruce Voogel. Thanks also go out to dressing room coach Macky Rebelo and practice coaches Sal Iozzo and Mike Mizzen. Thanks to Lou Campanella, Rick Arena and Dino DiNenno for being keepers of the banners. A big thank you to team manager Jan Mathieson, the behind the scenes work is the least fun but very important and we all appreciate your hard work. The coaches and parents congratulate the boys on a very successful and exciting year.