Your favorite minor hockey experience?

[Kravitch]

I have a favorite as a player.

As a player, in 1998, my house league team organized a road game in the tiny, cold (it was mid January) community of Midway, British Columbia. And since we were a house team, going on a road trip on a bus was a thrill! We got there, and since Midway is such a small town with only one rink (that seated about 1000), the whole arena was packed to watch the towns only minor hockey team against us. It was incredible, since the local Midway team we played was the only minor hockey team in the area, they got huge fan support from the people of the town (they were like celebrities!). They had quite an advantage on us since they were a travel team (which is sort of a glorified house team) and we were a house team of kids who played simply for the love of the game, not for exposure from junior teams or anything like that.

It was an amazing game, (roughly) 1000 supportive Midway fans cheereing on their team as for the first time in our lives, we were playing against not just an opposing team, but opposing fans.

The game ended in a 4-4 tie after we were down 4-2 midway (no pun intended) through the 3rd period. The crowd stood up and appluded both teams after the game as we shook hands afterward.

What also made the game special was the unlike back in Kelowna (where house teams are heavily overlooked by our rep teams), we played 25 minute run time periods with no ice clean. But in Midway we got for the first time, 20 minute stop time periods, with an ice clean! An interesting experience for us kids who have never had (and some, never would), witness a game being treated like it was a rep AAA game.

After playing the game it had me pitty all those rep players who say they would rather quit hockey altogether than play in a house league.

House league hockey, in my oppinion, is real hockey.

Click to read more...

 

[Keetz]

Cool story

 

[Accord]

My Amherst Hockey team took the annual trip to play a team from Mississauga and man, those Canadian kids are amazing. We lost and the score was something like 19-1 and then we exchanged medals afterwards, it was great, lol.

 

[AlienWorkShop]

In Atom, my team made it to the finals of the Nike All-Star Minor Hockey Tournament. The finals were held at Maple Leaf Gardens which was a big thrill. Also got a bunch of free stuff from Nike and other sponsors. I forget the exact number, but there were about 100 teams involved in the tournament.

In the finals, it was tied 0-0 going into OT against a team from Newmarket. In the 3rd OT, it was down to three on three hockey according to the rules, and they scored right off the face off. The games highlights were shown on CityTV, so atleast I got to be on TV and we got a very nice medal.

 

[two out of three*]

I played Bantam A for my local travel team the Ventura Mariners, I can honestly say that this was where my best hockey experiences came from. (so far.) We had a lot of talent on our team, and a good coach. He taught us the man to man defense, instead of your tipical Zone Defense. He had us breaking out well, regrouping, dumping and chasing, taking the puck wide, we were a really good team. We were a 80's team for sure. We listen to bands like "The Who" before games, and all had shaggy hair coming out of our helmets.

There were a lot of teams in this division, as a lot of clubs sported A teams that particular year. 21 Teams to be exact. The Top 8 made the playoffs. We finished in the top 4. The North Valley Tigers, Yorba Linda Blackhawks, and La Jolla Jaguars, and us were the teams to beat (supposedly.. everyone slept on the Desert Coyotes.)

The playoffs were round robin style so we played every team in our bracket once in the "quarter-finals." We entered game 1, and against a team called the Beach City Lightning. We fell behind 3-1, and scored to make it 3-2 with about 3:00 left to go in the 3rd. Time was winding down, and we needed a victory here, because we had the Jags, and Tigers in the upcoming games. We couldn't get anything going till about 24 seconds left..

Everyone was standing on the bench, with their shaggy hair. The fans were stomping their feet against the stands to make noise. Kyle Castile took the draw, and won it back to our hot shot Tyler Gilmore. He took the shot, the goalie made a save, and a rebound squirted back to a crashing Jeremy Wicks and he buried the tying goal with 19 seconds left. Overtime #1 began.. no score.

Overtime #2.. The same Jeremy Wicks lead the charge with a 2-on-1 break, takes a shot and the goalie fumbled with it, and the puck trickled in, and we celebrated a double OT victory. That for me was one of the greatest experiences I've ever been involved with. We wen't to the semi-finals, and lost a heartbreaker 4-3 to the eventual "SCAHA" champs the Desert Coyotes.

 

[MacDaddy TLC*]

My first out of town tournament in Manitouwadge. It was a round robin against Manitouwadge, Wawa, Marathon, and Hornepayne... Talk about 5 great hockey towns (T-Bay being the 5th)

I scored on the first shift of every game in the tournament; got knocked out in the game against Wawa, but bounced back to score on my first two shifts in the game against Hornepayne that wrapped up the championship for us.

 

[MacDaddy TLC*]

Also in Midget, in just a weird scene one of my teammates beat the snot out of the other team's coach after the coach said something to him. Our team was first off the ice and their was one exit off on the way to the dressing room and we had it plugged up. The other team's players were trying to climb over the glass to save their coach from Eddie (who was certifiable!), but we were using our sticks to swat them down. Somehow in this mess Eddie gets a 1 game suspension for beating the coach up, I get two games because it wasn't my first time using the stick for reasons other than intended and the coach got a lifetime ban for his part.

 

[Oilers Chick]

I've been to several pee wee games at one of my local rinks, the Empire Ice Arena (or as us locals affectionately call it "Snoopy's"). This rink is in Santa Rosa, CA and yes, it's the one where "Peanuts" creator, Charles M. Schultz used to frequent. I don't get out to as many games there as I used to because of my hectic schedule. when I did, I would go see the local Santa Rosa Flyers team. I knew one of the Flyers defensemen. He'd thank me after every game for coming out to see him play if I was there. If I wasn't, he called me a day or so later, asking me why I couldn't make it to the game and then give me a report on how well he and the team did (or didn't do). His mother and I were very good friends and they both know that I'm a hockey nut, so that's why I was at many of the games.

I have to say though, that people who've never seen hockey at this level, should do themselves a favor and get out to one of these games. It's well worth it for just the experience. For these kids, it's not about multi-million dollar contracts, it's about the love of the game. It is HERE where there is still a bit of the innocence of the game left. Sadly though there are those obnoxious, out-of-control "hockey parents" that ruin it for the kids (and yes, the SR Flyers have had at least one of their own that I know of).

 

[Malefic74]

I started playing in 1978 and have loved the game since the first moment I fell right on my butt. As anyone who watched the Heritage Classic knows winter in Edmonton can be bitterly cold. From the age 6 probably until about 10 we practiced on outdoor rinks once a week for the full season. And every year there was at least one tournament that was held on outdoor ice only.

I can still vividly remember Dad loosening helmet screws so I could wear my toque under my helmet to keep my ears warm. All of us skating and moving as much as we could to keep warm with our scarves blowing out behind us. I remember wondering why it stung so much more to make a save on the outdoor ice. And most of all I remember the whole team warming up in the shack afterwards with hot chocolate all around.

I sometimes think that kids today miss out on those kinds of experiences. I haven't seen a team practice on my local outdoor rink for probably 6 years or so. Funny how you never notice the cold when you're having fun.

 

[Youreallygotme]

Hey thats sweet I played in Midway too a couple years ago with my house team but it was nothing like that. No fans

It's an, err, interesting little town isnt it?

 

[dawgbone]

My favorite was actually my grade 9 year, I was playing in the Father Geotz tournament (biggest High School hockey tourney in Ontario).

I was a goalie and had seen virtually 0 playing time that year... well virtually was a stretch, I literally saw 0, and I got to dress for 3 or 4 games. Anyways the tourney rolls around and our starting goalie, who was in grade 12 and played AAA, had a tournament that weekend.

Our other goalie, who was in OAC (the old grade 13) was the regular backup and was going to start in the tournament. I was basically given the old, "be ready to go in" speach, but naturally I ignored it figuring my butt was going to be stapled to the bench all game long.

Well, after about 6 minutes into the first game, we were down 4-0 to Upper Canada College (who were perennial power houses at the time), and I heard the coach call a timeout. There I sat on the bench looking around in the crowd, when I noticed everyone staring at me, and I faintly heard my coaches voice asking if I was going to put my helmet on and get out there, as our timeout was over.

Anyways, after a few seconds of being lauged at, I skated over to the the crease, tapped my goal posts, took a deep breath and next thing I know UCC is coming into our zone with the puck. Their player took a shot that hit me right in the forehead, and went straight up into the crowd.

Needless to say that woke me up out of my daze and I realized that I was playing hockey as a 14 year old against guys literally twice my size... and oddly enough it didn't even phase me.

We went on to lose 9-0, and I got to make another start in that tournament (a 3-2 loss in OT) after we were officially eliminated from the playoff round. It was a pretty exciting time, and one that I completely didn't expect, and still remains one of my best memories.

 

[devilsfan26]

I've never played anywhere higher than just a house league, but anywho, last winter my team was in a semifinal game, and we had a decent season, mainly because we had such a great goalie who kept us in every game, but he wasn't at the semifinal game so we just stuck the coach's son in net and hoped we wouldn't get blown out. It turned out that about halfway into the game we realized we had a chance to win the game because the coach's son was on fire in net, and we kept the game close. We were down by two goals with about 6 minutes left, and we were able to score one goal to make it a one goal-game. Then we had a faceoff in the other team's end with about 15 seconds left in regulation, so we pulled the goalie and called a timeout. The same guy scored again to tie the game and send it into overtime, where the other team completely dominated, but our goalie was standing on his head, and we managed to force the game into a shootout.

Other than myself, we had two guys who were pretty good at breakaways. This was perfect because for some stupid reason this league only has 3-person shootouts instead of 5. So their team went first, our goalie made the save, our guy went and scored a goal. Their guy went next and our goalie made another save. Then I was next to shoot for my team, and since the other team only had one shooter left and we were winning by a goal, I knew that if I scored, we'd go to the finals. I skated up there, faked a wrist shot, deked to the other side and as the goalie dove over there, I slid the puck under him to win the game.

A few days later was the championship game. We were facing a team that was undefeated and won every game by about 5 goals. One player on their team scored an average of 3 or 4 goals per game, and he was hated throughout the league for his whiny attitude and cheap shots he was known to dish out. Anyway, our gameplan was to just make sure we finished the first and second periods with no more than a 2 goal deficit. The game was scoreless after two periods. They scored early in the 3rd, and then a few minutes later, scored another one. Right after the faceoff following their second goal, we scored one, to make it 2-1. The score remained the same for almost the rest of the period, but once again with less than 5 minutes remaining, the same guy who tied the semifinal game scored a goal to tie this game on a breakaway. We hoped we could just play solid D and force the game into overtime again, but with about a minute and a half left in the game, the same guy on our team had another breakaway and scored again, so we were able to beat the seemingly-unstoppable team and won the championship. The other team's superstar went insane. He was standing in the middle of the neutral zone waiting for a headman pass, and after we took the lead, he started screaming at his team for not playing defense. :lol He then proceeded to throw his stick and gloves, which earned him a game misconduct penalty.

Cool thing about this was that it was about a week after Miracle came out in theaters.

 

[littleHossa]

That guy was clutch, scored the 3 most important goals in your season along with yours. Good Story.

 

[RJ8812*]

Last year, well, this isnt really my favorite, i have a few, but this one is up there, playin Midget AA, in our league championship game, the series was tied 5 points a piece, (first to 6 points wins the series) the 6th (and final) game went into triple OT, and i scored the game winning goal with 5:00 left in the 6th period. It was kind of a flukey goal, we had a scramble down in there end, and i was just heading into the zone from the bench, and the puck came lose, and went back to the blueline, where i was, so i just stepped into it, and all i heard was the post, and then a few of my teamates put their arms in the air and charged after me. Went off the cross bar and in! goalie was screened by his own defenceman, awesome experience!

 

[two out of three*]

One of my least favorite moments is when I was a peewee. I drove down to Burbank to play an away game, and we are all cramped in this lockerroom that had hardly any room. My Dad was an assistant coach, and he was in the bathroom filling up the water bottles. There was one player on our team who is/was stupid, and didn't have any common knowledge. So he locks the door to the bathroom. (I dont know if he knew or did not know that my Dad was in there.) And I didn't see my Dad go in the bathroom either. (Thats the honest to God truth.)

Well, as we were leaving to go on our pre-game run, we heard a guy who was really pissed off in the bathroom (gee I wonder who that could be.) and me and my friend didn't want to open the door, and get our asses whooped from this mad-man in the locker room.. So we just left the locker room for our run.

10 Minutes later we come back, and "that mad-man in the bathroom" is still banging the door angrily. Our regular coach told us to open the door, and surprise surprise its my Dad pissed off. So he leans over, and tells me what he feels.. (and If I wrote what he said there would just be stars all over the place.)

I still played that game (fortunately) and we won, but I played like $)-(it. That was for sure one of the worst moments ever.

 

[devilsfan26]

That guy was clutch, scored the 3 most important goals in your season along with yours. Good Story.

Yea and the funny thing was that this guy had one of the worst shots of anyone I've ever played with, but he was just a beast when he was one-on-one with the goalie, so that's how he scored all his goals. He was also the guy on our team who would have went next in the shootout if I didn't score so he could have had the 4 most important goals of our season.

 

[mazmin]

I used to play house league with Alexandre Steen. Eventually when we were "travelling" teams I had to play against him.

The Tuxedo Express team of 1995 had Brady Murray, Alexander Steen, Tyler Boldt (Atlanta Draft pick), Jacob McFlickier (see NCAA) Craig Carlyle (Randy's son) and was coached by Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray, who at the time was assistant coach of the Jets!

I have a few friends that got to play on that team... unfortunatly I had to play against them. As expected we got whipped every time!

This isn't my greatest minor hockey memory but it's the most interesting.

 

[Avery4Byng*]

I had lots of memories, played AA through till 2nd year peewee, then stopped for a year, played bantam house for a year then quit again... then played overage midget house...

Out of all the years of rep and what not I would have to say I had the most fun playing overage midget house. there was only 3 kelowna teams in our league but our team had all our friends on it and we just had a greeat time. nothying really stood out, cept for maybe playin drunk half the games, but it was just a good time.

 

[badtakemachine]

I have a few good experiences sofar.

When I was 13, I played on the Vancouver Island Triple A (AAA) team in a few tournaments as a goaltender, and I played against some pretty good competition including Zach Hamill (2006 draft eligible).

Probably my favourite experience was when I was 14, my Vancouver Island Triple A team went to Whistler, BC's international Triple A tournament and we were playing against the Quebec Bulldogs, which featured players such as Angelo Esposito. Anyway, that game ended up 8-0 in favour of Quebec and our only shot came from outside the blueline on a powerplay. The shot clock hit 99 five minutes in to the third period, good for the save percentage at least.

This past summer, still 14 at the time (September birthdate), my Double A (AA) minor hockey team from my city entered an international Triple A tournament in Ridge Meadows/Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge (amazing how many cities made out of four words...) and we ended up playing against the Calgary Blackhawks (whom had several WHL Bantam draftees), Burnaby Minor Triple A, a couple other teams but most importantly H.C. Pardubice from the Czech Republic. Suprisingly, we only lost that game around 4-2, thanks to poor goaltending on their side.

Later in the summer, around July, my Island Triple A team entered the Whistler tournament again. In that tournament we played against the California Cougars and the San Jose Jr. Sharks (could be another California team). Probably the toughest game we played was against the Coquitlam Jr. Express who had the likes of Ryan Kerr (#1 Overall Choice in the 2004 WHL Bantam Draft).

One of the best games I've ever played in my life was in a teiring round a couple years back, when Ty Wishart (Prince George Cougars) was still in my league. It was a 0-0 tie vs. his local Triple A team.

Hopefully this is my last year in minor hockey.

 

[Kravitch]

I used to play house league with Alexandre Steen. Eventually when we were "travelling" teams I had to play against him.

The Tuxedo Express team of 1995 had Brady Murray, Alexander Steen, Tyler Boldt (Atlanta Draft pick), Jacob McFlickier (see NCAA) Craig Carlyle (Randy's son) and was coached by Los Angeles Kings head coach Andy Murray, who at the time was assistant coach of the Jets!

I have a few friends that got to play on that team... unfortunatly I had to play against them. As expected we got whipped every time!

This isn't my greatest minor hockey memory but it's the most interesting.

Steen played house league? Cool! I never would have thought.

House league for life!

 

[I.am.ca]

For me it was Midget AAA, only 6 forwards and 3 defensemen showed up. I had to play the game as the 4th defensemen on the 2nd line and then centered the 1st line, it was a rough game because after the game i went home and just collapsed on my bed and slept for a good 10hrs. In that game i collected 2 goals and 5 assists (all 5 assists were as the 4th d-man, had me thinking about converting as defenseman). I was soo angry that game that i just punished the hell out of the opposing team's players. I'm not some small guy either when i played i was 6'2'' 198lbs (5% body fat, i also played football so that kept me in shape).

Stupid knee's blew out the next game after that brutal double shifting every other shift game. Some guy two handed me to the knee and the ref didn't see and well in Midget AAA you don't have a video tape, well the home team's fans didnt want to give it up at least. Stupid Revelstoke freaks.

 

[Youreallygotme]

I have a few good experiences sofar.

When I was 13, I played on the Vancouver Island Triple A (AAA) team in a few tournaments as a goaltender, and I played against some pretty good competition including Zach Hamill (2006 draft eligible).

Probably my favourite experience was when I was 14, my Vancouver Island Triple A team went to Whistler, BC's international Triple A tournament and we were playing against the Quebec Bulldogs, which featured players such as Angelo Esposito. Anyway, that game ended up 8-0 in favour of Quebec and our only shot came from outside the blueline on a powerplay. The shot clock hit 99 five minutes in to the third period, good for the save percentage at least.

This past summer, still 14 at the time (September birthdate), my Double A (AA) minor hockey team from my city entered an international Triple A tournament in Ridge Meadows/Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge (amazing how many cities made out of four words...) and we ended up playing against the Calgary Blackhawks (whom had several WHL Bantam draftees), Burnaby Minor Triple A, a couple other teams but most importantly H.C. Pardubice from the Czech Republic. Suprisingly, we only lost that game around 4-2, thanks to poor goaltending on their side.

Later in the summer, around July, my Island Triple A team entered the Whistler tournament again. In that tournament we played against the California Cougars and the San Jose Jr. Sharks (could be another California team). Probably the toughest game we played was against the Coquitlam Jr. Express who had the likes of Ryan Kerr (#1 Overall Choice in the 2004 WHL Bantam Draft).

One of the best games I've ever played in my life was in a teiring round a couple years back, when Ty Wishart (Prince George Cougars) was still in my league. It was a 0-0 tie vs. his local Triple A team.

Hopefully this is my last year in minor hockey.

That triple A tournament in Ridge Meadows that you mentioned...Did you mean spring? Because we played in one in the spring there, and there was a Czeck Republic team and the Calgary team which we held to a 4-1 score in the A final. We also won the semifinal in the shootout which was intense.

 

[espo*]

I have a favorite as a player.

As a player, in 1998, my house league team organized a road game in the tiny, cold (it was mid January) community of Midway, British Columbia. And since we were a house team, going on a road trip on a bus was a thrill! We got there, and since Midway is such a small town with only one rink (that seated about 1000), the whole arena was packed to watch the towns only minor hockey team against us. It was incredible, since the local Midway team we played was the only minor hockey team in the area, they got huge fan support from the people of the town (they were like celebrities!). They had quite an advantage on us since they were a travel team (which is sort of a glorified house team) and we were a house team of kids who played simply for the love of the game, not for exposure from junior teams or anything like that.

It was an amazing game, (roughly) 1000 supportive Midway fans cheereing on their team as for the first time in our lives, we were playing against not just an opposing team, but opposing fans.

The game ended in a 4-4 tie after we were down 4-2 midway (no pun intended) through the 3rd period. The crowd stood up and appluded both teams after the game as we shook hands afterward.

What also made the game special was the unlike back in Kelowna (where house teams are heavily overlooked by our rep teams), we played 25 minute run time periods with no ice clean. But in Midway we got for the first time, 20 minute stop time periods, with an ice clean! An interesting experience for us kids who have never had (and some, never would), witness a game being treated like it was a rep AAA game.

After playing the game it had me pitty all those rep players who say they would rather quit hockey altogether than play in a house league.

House league hockey, in my oppinion, is real hockey.

That is a nice story

 

[Pensfan86]

In the highschool playoffs my freshman year, we played a team, Bethal Park, whose team that year was considered by many to be the best of all time in highschool hockey in Pittsburgh (they only gave up like 17 goals in 24 games).

Anyway, as you can imagine, we were big underdogs, coming in as the 8 seed, and while we had the talent to play with them (We actually had 3 future Jr.A players who were juniors in hs at the time, and two AAA players, me, a freshman, and a sophomore on the team) we lacked the continuity and teamwork that made good teams great. However, we managed to come together when we needed to, first scoring early to stun both them and their fans. If anyone here is from the Pittsburgh area, Mark Madden, the radio host was at the game, and is pretty good friends with my dad, and said, "Gateway better not give up any goals...because they sure as hell arent scoring anymore." The funny thing is, we played extremely well with the lead, and while we were outshot, our goalie played remarkably well, and literally seemed to see everything.

So, the second period came to a close, and it was still 1-0 us. Thoughts already began entering our minds while sitting in the lockerroom during intermission, "dude...you really think we can do this???"

Unfortunately, we were unable to pull off the upset. One of our better defensemen, a junior, was academically inelidgible, and occasionally, we would get caught on d, with no one to go out, which proved to be the case that night. One player had a penalty, the other was hurt, and me and our main defenseman had just come off of a 2 minute shift. With no one else to send out, our defenseman coach sent out a little used senior onto the ice, which he still regrets doing today (I begged him to let me go out even though I was tired as hell). Within moments of the faceoff, the crappy d man we had on was laying on the ice, and Bethal scored, and basically steam rolled from there on, popping in two more before the end of the game (one was an EN goal).

Although we lost, it was seriously the best game I had ever played in my entire life. I dont think I made one mistake defensively, as I was able to help in shutting down one of the most potent offenses in highschool that year. Not much of an experience as far as winning goes, but I'll always remember the time we almost pulled off the upset.

 

[Canadian Chris]

Great stories....

I've got a few myself...


My first story happened in Pee Wee....I played house league as my dad really never gave me any confidence that I could play AAA...haha...ANYWAYS, the league I was in was sending down a "all-star" team to Seattle for a tourny. Well, I got to go, and man, that was one amazing tournament.

We walked over the US teams, as they begin hitting in Pee-Wee, where as we began hitting in Bantam. Anyways, I think our first 3 games were against teams from Washington State. The scores were like 15-1, 13-2 and 10-0 or something like that. Anyways, in the semi-finals we got to face a team from the lower mainland...possibly Ridge Meadows - can't remmeber for sure. We beat them 5-2, I distinctly remember this because I hadn't had the greatest tournament to this point, but had 2 goals and an assist this game...I've still got the game MVP t-shirt too haha...it was good times.

In the finals we played Langley and that was just a helluva game. Tied 3-3 after regulation, so we did a 10min 5-5 OT...nothing happens. so it drops to 4-4 OT for 5mins...I was on the ice for the goal, simply awesome tourny to win there...my buddy just sorta had the puck bounce through legs and over sticks and somehow managed to lay flat for him and he put it in a wide open net. Good times!