LHT 4 - 20 Jan, 2007
Awards
Singles
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Doubles
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Summaries
Singles Tournament
FINAL RANKINGS: 1-Alan; 2-Trent; 3-Ryan; 4-Liz;
5-Anne; 6-John M; 7-John B; 8-Adrian; 9-Jane; 10-Dave; 11-Randy;
12-Tony; 13-Jonathon; 14-Nicole; 15-Joel; 16-Alex; 17-Lorin;
18-Polly
The singles tournament was a tournament of upsets. We know that
table hockey is an unpredictable game but this was just ridiculous.
Rookies shined, stars fell and there were upsets all around.
The tournament was exciting even before it began. John Musters and
Jonathon had flown in from Canada the night before and had been
practicing since their arrival. Adrian had full intentions of being
the first to win the cup twice. Anne, Ryan & Ethan flew in from the
Coyotes game just hours before. Alan had been regularly beating
Adrian in pre-tournament play and figured this might be a good time
to win. And Trent, quiet Trent, who placed last in Aug 2006 ate
something incredible for breakfast... or had Gretzky come visit
him... or something... It was going to be a tournament to be
remembered... that was for sure.
The first round was mostly uneventful, but with some important
highlights. Joel won his first ever singles game; Nicole, a true
rookie, beat Polly; and Trent redeemed his performance last year
with a win over Anne. The most exciting first-round matchup was
between Tony and John Musters. In John's first official game he did
not disappoint all those with high expectations of the Canadian. By
a convincing score of 8-4 John showed that not even the legend, Tony
would stop him today. Also Alex fell to Dave, Jane set the bar high
by scoring 9 goals in her opening game, and Adrian, Ryan and Randy
advanced past Joel, Nicole and Liz.
Second round is where things got interesting. Adrian, having scored
the most goals (10) in the first round was brimming with confidence
and thought, "surely Trent will be no match for me - I'll try to set
a new scoring record". Trent would have none of it, except for the
scoring record part. In a game that was never really in question,
and where the highest number of goals in the tournament so far was
set (at 11), last years lowest placing competitor easily dethroned
last years highest placing competitor. Trent was ecstatic to defeat
Adrian, but he wasn't finished yet. We can't have a tournament
without Jane and Alan facing each other... and it wouldn't be
tradition without Alan squeaking by in an exciting match. And given
the importance of tradition Jane decided to let her brother advance.
Ryan faced his brother Randy for the first time in LHT play and beat
him without much question in a relatively low-key game. And finally
Dave was doomed to face John Musters - and John proved that he
wasn't quite finished his rookie run for the cup. Dave kept it very
close - losing only by one goal (5-4). John, realizing that he can
beat anyone now, started really working on scoring goals with his
defensive players. In many situations where he could have taken a
shot with his left winger, he would instead pass the puck back to a
defenseman and try a one-time shot with him. He was not satisfied
with just winning games - he wanted his namesake trophy (The John
Musters most productive defense award). Given that the score of this
game was so close it is worth mentioning that Dave scored his third
goal (for the tournament so far) against himself in this match.
On the left side of the bracket all of the competitors faced a do or
die situation. That was bad news for Polly (who had to face Tony),
and Lorin (who had to face John Brumbaugh)... you just don't want to
face either of these guys in do-or-die games. Polly finished in 18th
and Lorin in 17th place. Tony, arguably the highest skilled player
in the tournament, did not plan to lose any more games. That was bad
news for Alex, his next opponent, and she knew it. Alex did win the
game in one category (intensity) but it wasn't goals. In fact Tony
tied the tournament record so far with 11 goals. It was the momentum
that he was looking for knowing that he would face Adrian (who had
no momentum) in the next round. Alex, wearing her Canadian shirt and
asking everyone she met, "How's it goin', eh?" had to settle for
16th place, but easily wrapped up the Canadian Spirit Award. Anne
advanced past Joel - he couldn't stay and settled for 15th. Nicole
hoped that her "beginners luck" would come into play against a
seasoned veteran Liz. It was a very exciting game, in which Liz's
center pounded shot after shot (17 in all) at Nicole's goalie who
played fantastically. But the shots proved to be the game-winning
strategy. Nicole: 10 shots, 5 goals; Liz: 22 shots, 7 goals. Nicole
finished 14th and took home rookie MVP. John B advanced to face
Jonathon. Their game was exciting and even in all stats except the
score - seriously, it was uncanny: faceoffs, shots and assists were
identical, but John had more goals. Jonathon would finish 13th and
turn his attention to the Doubles Tournament.
In the next round on that side of the bracket were some interesting
match-ups. Most notably was the 2nd ever Adrian-Tony match-up. Tony
was on a roll now, and Adrian had just suffered a surprising loss to
the newly declared tournament favourite, Trent. This game was
nothing if not intense. There were at least 7 lead changes, and the
last goal of regulation was scored within the last 15 seconds of
play. At 9-9 they headed to penalty shots and each scored 3 times.
In double overtime neither scored. In triple overtime both scored.
In quadruple overtime neither scored. Sensing that he didn't know
the word for the next overtime Adrian scored the only goal in the
5th overtime round and pulled off a lucky save against Tony. The
all-star was relegated to 12th place with an increasingly potent
vengeance against Adrian. The John B - Randy match-up looked to be
an exciting one on paper. In practice though, it was all John. By a
score of 6-3 John warded off the deadly attack by Randy's right
winger and advanced leaving Randy in 11th place. The next game
featured Dave against Anne and everyone figured they knew the
outcome before it began. Anne was just too crazy to be able to
compete against the calculated attack of the friendly giant... or
was she? Dave took an unprecedented 21 shots with his center and
Anne fended off all but 3. One other goal by his left defense was
all that he would get. Anne's craziness was apparent, but it was
controlled... isn't that a paradox? Controlled Craziness? Random
Finesse? Well she pulled it off with 3 goals from (or at least
attributed to) her right defender and 3 from her center and (partly
due to Dave's 2 goals against himself) she won the game. Dave having
scored 5 goals against himself beat out Anne for the Tim
Horton's/Teete's Twit Cup and finished in 10th place. The brackets
now pitted the two top females in the competition against each
other, Jane and Liz. In a game that was thrilling from the opening
faceoff to the final buzzer they set a record for number of shots
taken in a game (76 total) and one that should easily have gone to
overtime. Jane's defense was brilliant against most of Liz's
attacks, but was no match for the the shots of her own players. Jane
scored twice on herself and lost 6-5. Liz would advance - Jane
stayed in 9th place. Jane's defensive play throughout the tournament
easily secured her the coveted, "John Musters - most productive
defense award" with 18.0 SPG,, 4.5 GPG, and, 1.5 APG.
The next round on the left side of the bracket did not have many
players left... Adrian played Anne and lost miserably. There was no
question - Anne had the game wrapped up right from the beginning.
Scoring 3 quick goals and holding on to the lead with phenomenal
pass/shot combos and defense that couldn't be beat, she consigned
Adrian to 8th place - his lowest placing of any tournament. John B
faced his wife and met a similar fate as all of those who fell in
upset matches this night. At the end of the match though John's
excitement exceeded that of Liz's because the winner had a tough,
tough road ahead. John Brumbaugh finished 7th overall.
On the winners side of the bracket were the only 4 undefeated
players in the tournament, Trent had to face the red-hot John
Musters, and Alan and Ryan faced off in a familiar battle. But
John's performance - for the first time - was lacking, and despite
his 16 shots from the center, he could not net more than 4 goals,
when 8 would have been necessary just to tie Trent. Trent's center
was really in the grove now, as he scored 6 goals and got two more
with his defense. Trent was making a statement. It was a similar
performance for Alan in the other game as he warded off 12 shots by
Ryan's center, and 7 shots by his left winger. Alan really started
to perfect his game by using his left winger... taking shot after
shot. If the shot didn't go in then his center was scoring the
rebound. By a score of 5-1 Ryan was off to the other side to win his
way through.
And so John M would face Liz. Having lost against Trent his
motivation and brilliance seemed to continue to wane as Liz jumped
out to an early lead and held it. With an identical score as the one
when Trent beat him, John M fell to the seasoned pro, Liz and
finished the tournament in 6th place. Ryan now had to play Anne who
was just picking off tournament favourites... But Ryan did not have
the same troubles as the other men who fell victim to his wife and
he beat her 9-3. Anne had a marvelous showing in the tournament and
placed her highest ever - 5th place... she just keeps getting better
and better. One thing is certain though - The crazy bobble-head
trophy is hers... and now she wins it, and she wins games.
Next Ryan would face Liz. He must have been a little nervous... Liz
had defeated John M, John B, and Jane... but if he was he didn't
show it at all. He had lost to Alan, and now he had a mission to
accomplish and so with all the seriousness he could conjure he
played calculated, skillful hockey and won 6-1. You just don't argue
with Ryan when he's focused like that. Liz had the best offense in
the tournament and placed 4th overall - her highest ranking too.
Now it was a competition between the pre-tournament favourite (Alan)
and the newly declared favourite (Trent). Neither had lost a game
and everyone figured that whoever won this game would win the whole
thing. After all the loser, if he could get past Ryan, would have to
win twice to beat the winner of this game... so a lot was riding on
it. And given that it was a relatively cautious game... The caution
did not pay off for Alan. He continued to pounce with his left
winger, but Trent's goaltending was too good. The only goals Alan
scored were with his center and it was definitely not enough to
match Trent's 5 goals. Trent was beaming - he knew that this was his
time... it had to be.
Now Alan and Ryan had to face each other again. This game was not
unexpected, and was not welcomed by either one. And the winner of
this game had to beat Trent... twice! But this is what had to be
done in order to drink from the cup... The game was unbelievable...
absolutely unbelievable. Alan took an unprecedented 80 shots by
himself (27 with that dang left winger) and scored 7 goals. The
barrage of shots (which I'll point out killed Alan's shooting
percentage scores) was just too much for Ryan's team who was unable
to even net one goal. The first tournament shut-out sent Alan to the
finals, and kept Ryan in 3rd place. This was Ryan's highest placing
since winning the cup. 1st, then 5th, then 3rd... what next?
Alan & Trent. Deja vu. As noted earlier Trent only had to win one
more game. He would play it cautiously, maybe get up by a couple and
just hold on to the lead. Alan would have none of that. In the first
game Alan was just stupid with those shots again. Though he only
took 13 with the LW and 21 with the center, he was still able to win
easily by a score of 10-4. Now it was down to the final game. Now
Alan had momentum on his side and Trent was backed up against the
wall. So in this game there was no caution... both were in it for
all the glory. There were significantly fewer shots taken, and Trent
completely shut down that darn left winger. But when you focus your
energies on shutting down one player it often leaves another open.
And thus was the fate for Trent as Alan's Center scored 9 goals. And
that's all that was needed to top Trent's 4 goals (a hat-trick by
his left defender) and to win Lord Hubbard's Cup.
Alan drank proudly from the cup and deserved to win it as much as
anyone. Trent played incredible hockey. He was the only player to be
in the finals for both doubles and singles. His 2nd place finish was
simply amazing - a feat that no one... not even Trent... predicted
was possible.
But the highest honor in the LHT goes to Alan. He took 235 shots,
had 43 goals, 21 assists, 87.1% save percentage, 6 wins, .857
winning percentage (first in all of those categories) and now will
have his name forever inscribed on Lord Hubbard's Cup. He will
shortly be inducted into the LHT Hall of Fame.
Doubles Tournament
FINAL RANKINGS: 1-Tony & Trent; 2-John & Jonathon;
3-Adrian & Jane; 4-John & Liz; 5-Randy & Lorin; 6-Alan & Alex;
7-Anne & Ryan; 8-Dave & Cara; 9-Polly & Joel
Statistics
Click here for LHT 4 stats (coming soon)