Tier 1("C") 2010 Provincials

This year we were honoured as a league to submit two teams to this years tier 1 ("C") Provincials based on our overall size as a league.

Over the past 2 Provincial Championships for this division London has left disappointed each time.  2008 saw no success as a small roster of Norstar players and call ups found themselves winless and finishing 29th spot when all was said and done.  2009 the Outpatients took a kick at the can and though things looked promising out of the gate with a win and a tie after two games, the success and looking on to what they were not at cost them in game 3 as they lost badly to a 0-2-0 team and had to leave Oshawa with the disappointment of not advancing.  With that said they did improve imensly from our previous years finish by placing 14th in the province out of 34 teams.  This year we two really stong chances to improve on that and here is how that played out........

<P>Norstar Conulting- Qualified by becoming our Tier 1 Playoff Champs, they were last at this event in 2008 but poor player tournouts had them finish 29th out of 32 teams.

<P>Tiger Jacks- Qualified by becoming our tier 1 runners up in the playoffs and have never been at a tier 1("C") Provincial Championship Tournament before but were last years bronze medalists as they took third place losing to the eventual winner the Chatham Coyotes.

Norstar Consulting showed up with a strong squad as they borrowed a few Tier 2 regular season champs from the Renegades to bolster their roster.  The team eaked out a solid effort by downing a Toronto team 2-1 in game 1.  The team would faulter as they took part in a team parade to the penalty box and eventually let the game slip away with 3 seconds left on the clock to lose 3-2.  The team pulled themselves together for game 3 which would determine if the team would advance or not and hammered home an enthusiastic 7-0 win to skip along to the quaters.  A familar face would present itself as their opponent and in the way of a semi final birth which no London team has seen in a number of years.  Norstar and TIger Jacks would once again face off head to head and unfortunatley cost London one of their teams.  A gritty effort by both teams concluded in a 2-1 finish with Tiger Jacks being on top and moving on, Norstar would be sent packing but not without redeeming themselves as a creditable threat in the "C" Provincials.  29th 2 years ago to somewhere between 5th-8th is very impressive and something all of that team should be very proud of.  A League Title and a top 10 finish at Provincials is one hell of a year and there is no reason not to think this team will be right in the thick of things come 2011.

Tiger Jacks  without thier league leading scorer Cory Emmerton and a few others starting players decided to recruit 5 Ingerssoll Assissins to assist them in their first ever "C" Provinicials.  A few of the Assassins went down with the Outpatients last season so would certainly offer some experiance at this level.  The boy sin orange game out hard in game 1 winning by a convincing score of 6-0, game 2 was pretty much the same as they rolled on by with a 5-0 victory.  Game three presented itself with their first real challange but grinded out a 2-0 win and in doing so won their pool and grabbed the first seed in the tourny after the round robin.  This volted them into the quarter finals where they faced their league feux, Norstar Consulting.  The Tiger Jacks team avenged their game three league championship loss by knocking off the Norstar group in a 2-1 win despite losing thier top D man and captain Scott Talbot early in the game.  By advancing to the semi finals Tiger Jacks catapolted London and the LBHA into a "B" League and thus we will have represenatives at that tournament for the coming years which we have not had for a good 5 years or so.  With their captains health in question Tiger Jacks were off to the semi's and though they were short down 2 men for most of the last 7 minutes of the game held on for a nail biting 3-2 victory!  This had our LBHA Tiger Jacks team in the finals and who would they face?  Like all great stories go,  a known combatant, they would square off against the Chatam Coyotes who beat Tiger Jacks in the "D" Provincial semi final last year, both teams one year older, another years of experiance and a division higher, this time playing for the "C" Championship.  The Tiger Jacks team outplayed the Coyotes for big chunks of the game but found themselves running into a hot Tender who was make save after save regardless of how hard or challenging the shot was.  Tiger Jacks had a hot net minder of their own as Chad Howie had only allowed 3 goals in the revious 5 games but was out duelled in this one as the Chatam Coyotes squeeked out a 2-1 win to take the "C" Championship and leave our boys Silver Medalists and taking 2nd place.  Tiger Jacks is a team on the rise and look to continue doing so as they have 2 league titles and Medal placings at each of the last 2 provincials.  Keep up the great work guys and thanks for taking our city and league to the next level of ball hockey.