| .:Indians runners up at Steel City Tourney |
| .:Posted on Monday, January 11 @ 12:17:48 EST by Administrator |
If you are from either side of the St. Mary's River, this was the matchup you are hoping for. The host, Soo Northstars against their cross border rivals, the Soo Indians. That's what it ended up to be in the Championship game.
The Indians had a much better showing in making it to the finals by going 5-0 and outscoring their opponents 23-11. The Northstars, on the other hand, sneaked in the backdoor by going 3-2 and outscoring their opponents by a 16-8 margin, including a 2-1 loss against the Indians in round robin play. In the end, the Northstars avenged their initial loss with a 6-3 win in the Championship game to win the tournament and place the Indians as runners-up.
The Indians started the tourney by playing the league rival, Ojibwa Eagles, and taking that win quite easily with a 6-1 victory. Joey Gravedoni played net and earned the win while Gavin Burbach scored 2 goals and Kyle Maleport, Levi Blom, Colby Spoonemore and Nate Fitzpatrick added other goals for the win. Officially, Maleport got the game winning goal. Burbach received the MVP award for the game.
 Their second game was a bit tougher against the Chicago Huskies. The Huskies opened up a quick 3-1 lead in the first before the Indians were able to settle down and recompose themselves. Adam Eno started in net, but Joey Gravedoni replaced him and earned the win as the Indians scored 5 more time to Chicago's two additional goals for the 6-5 win. Scoring for the Soo were Kyle Maleport, Jeremy Gravedoni, Gunner Bjorklund, Cody Blom, Colby Spoonemore and with the GW goal, Alex Goodhue. Joey Gravedoni earned the MVP award for this game.
On the second day of the tourney, the Indians faced the Hearst (ON) Elans for their third victory of the tournament. Gravedoni earned the win with help on goals from Levi Blom, Cody Blom, Jeremy Gravedoni, Chris Hoffman and Nate Fitzpatrick. Jeremy Gravedoni got the GW goal to help his brother with the win while Matt Samuel earned MVP honors for his hard play during the game.
With merely a 3 hour break, a very tired Indians team faced their toughest opponent in the Soo Northstars. The Indians opened up a hard 2-0 lead before the Northstars broke the shutout with less and two minutes left in the game. Again, Joey Gravedoni played an outstanding game and certainly earned his MVP award. Goals came from Dave Castellion and Colby Spoonemore with the game winner. The Indians now are the only undefeated team in the Midget AAA division after the round robin play.
In the semi-final game, the Indians played a rematch against the Chicago Huskies. This game wasn't as tough as the first game, but the Huskies proved to be a very hard team to beat. They were everywhere and executed well, but the Indians continued to pound forward for a 5-2 victory. Kyle Maleport received his second game winning goal. Other goals scorers were Alex Goodhue, Cody Blom, Gavin Burbach and Colby Spoonemore. Spoonemore earned his MVP award for this game with his consistent hard driving play. Joey Gravedoni was solid in net for his fifth straight win.
The Soo Northstars also won their semifinal game creating the matchup everyone wanted. At 3 pm, the Northstars got their rematch against the Indians for the title game. These two teams have been in this position 3 of the last 6 years, if memory serves me correctly. It could even by 4 of 6, but regardless, the point is that both teams look forward to this "Battle of the Border".
The Northstars struck first on a pretty redirect and scored once more to put the Indians down 2-0. The Soo did pull within one goal before the Northstars struck back just seconds later to keep their two-goal lead. Eventually, the game got hot, the players got hot and the refs got hot and the boxes were filled. The Northstars took advantage of their advantage and scored a couple more goals. The Indians never gave up, though, and continued to score, but in the end it just wasn't enough. The Northstars came out on top with a 6-3 victory and the tournament championship. Kyle Maleport received the MVP honors for this game while Joey Gravedoni suffered his first and only loss of the tournament. Scoring for the Soo were Colby Spoonemore, Dave Castellion and Corey Jewell.
 "This team had one heck of a weekend," says Coach Harwood. "They played their butts off all three days. They were very tired with the short break between games on Saturday, but still fought hard to win." Harwood added, "We need to give credit where credit is due and the Northstars made it to the finals and they played very well. They deserved this win."
"I can't go without commenting on the play of (goaltender) Joey Gravedoni," Harwood says. "He was solid all weekend and the goals that were scored upon his were earned. If I could give an MVP for the tournament, it would be him. The others played extremely well, but Joey was certainly on top of his game."
The Indians will travel to Houghton, MI next weekend to take on the Ojibwa Eagles in NLHL play and return home the following weekend to host the Lansing Capitals. As always, admission is FREE and the public is welcome to come enjoy our games.
Note: Photos for all the Indians' games during this tournament have been posted on our sponsor's site, SandMark Photography.
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Average Score: 4.66
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