Charlie Liu’s Blog

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WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Nov 29th, 2009 by mingyi

Charlie’s hockey team, the Princeton Squirts Orange team, just won the BSA Ice Arena Thanksgiving tournament for Squirts B group with four straight wins! They had beaten 2 teams (Cranford and Brick) that they lost to previously with a combined 3-8 score en route to the Championship game. The Championship game was against the same Brick team that beat them 4-1 earlier in the season but was beaten by our team 5-4 yesterday in a true nailbiter. It was certain that they’d thought yesterday was a fluke (but of course, a 3-0 record and 1st place finish in tournament standings was no fluke!) and would want revenge and get the last laugh. Our team, on the other hand, had the Championship trophy on mind after much spirited play for the last couple days. It’s going to be a tough game as everyone knew.

Yesterday Charlie’s left ankle was hurt, and his old stick was close to broken. So he had plenty rest yesterday and we cut a new stick for him. It is, of course, risky to change stick right at the game, so we told him to switch the stick back if the new stick doesn’t feel right. His ankle was also mostly recovered. Everything’s looking good …

But from the start of the game, Brick was sending strong waves of attacks against our goal. Our team looked slight sluggish, comparatively, and the play was on our side most of the time. Fortunately our goalie Henry and the defense (Charlie, Sierra, Ben, Anish) held well, with the offense (David, Matt, Logan, Sam, Kyle, Ben, Ryan, Chandler, Frank) helping out. As the buzzer sounded at end of first period we were all relieved.

2nd period was a little the same, but with our offense attacking more. The period was filled with quick attacks by both sides and both goalie held well. Our offense was working very hard helping out on the defense as well. The period ended in a scoreless tie again.

The last period, pressure was on. Both teams went wild attacking each other’s goal. Every parent was so thrilled watching the great game unfold, while at the same time hoping the first team to score is our side. Both teams featured many fastbreaks broken up by tenacious defenses or excellent play by goalie. Our other goalie Chris had some great saves too. It was becoming increasingly clear that the two teams are quite evenly matched, if it wasn’t already clear from the 5-4 score yesterday! The clocked ticked down to the last minute and it seems that the game is destined to the overtime, Logan got a great chance and shot on the other goal, the goalie blocked the shot, then Logan shot the rebound, and again, and it went in! You can imagine the boisterous roar in the rink, the joyous celebration by both the players and the parents. We are so proud of these young fighters that never gave up on either side of the rink!! The clock only had 55 seconds left in the game, and Brick had a few more chances to attack, but our kids held firm and the final buzzer sounded with Princeton Squirts Orange becoming the undisputed Champions of the tournament! What an amazing achievement after a horrific 2-14 record to start the season! What a great turnaround by head coach Jim and assistant coaches Eric, John! What great efforts by the kids! They behaved extremely well, displaying great skills and resolve, and absolutely great sportsmanship - they won the tournament without committing a single penalty! I have no doubt that these experiences would benefit them their whole lives!

What a brilliant day and what brilliant games played by our kids! They were fighting till the end of each game and that’s why they are the Champions - oh, how I wish I have the mp3 to embed here! But I guess you all can sing that famous song here for us!