Chris Fee Cup game a thriller
Minor Atom AA Petes take part in opening ceremonies game at 60th Peterborough Liftlock Atom Hockey Tournament
At 60 years of age the Peterborough Liftlock Atom Hockey Tournament spans the generations as the Chris Fee Cup game displayed.
Peterborough McBain Quarries minor atom AA Petes head coach Mike Heffernan played in the tournament and is now coaching his son Travis at it.
The Petes, competing in the BB Division, were involved in the Chris Fee Cup game at the Memorial Centre which serves as the official opening ceremonies for the four-day, 126-team affair which features 11 divisions in the atom age group. The game was broadcast on YourTV.
“It was big for our kids with the tradition that it’s been around Peterborough,” Heffernan said. “All the coaches have played in it so it’s big for our kids to play in the tournament and be in the opening game.”
It’s been a lot of years since Heffernan played in it but one memory stuck out for him.
“I just remember playing in the Memorial Centre as a kid. That was always a big thrill. We told the kids how big it was and how important it was to play in it and to have fun.”
Petes player Blake Moncrief said his father Chris played in the tournament, too, so it felt good to do the same.
“He told me there are tough teams in this tournament,” Blake said.
He said it was also exciting to be on TV.
“It was cool because people could watch us from all around the world,” he said.
The Petes came out on the shortend against the visiting Leaside Flames 2-1 with all the scoring in the first period. Benjamin Taylor scored both Leaside goals 1:51 apart in the opening three minutes. Peterborough replied 1:33 later when Sawyer Fleming set up Ethan Richardson with 6:05 left in the first period. They were unable to beat Leaside goalie James Pun again even through a five-on-three power play midway through the third period.
“We played pretty good I just thought we could have scored more goals,” Moncrief said. “We were shooting on that goalie and had tons of shots. We have to move the puck around on the power plays and be a team.”
“We gave them two quick goals and then had to battle back and came up a little short,” said Heffernan. “We have to win both games (Saturday) now to be able to move on to Sunday. We didn’t have a great game or a great effort but we battled back. We didn’t win all the battles we should have. The message was to be ready for tomorrow.”
This was the first time Leaside coach Brad Bull said he’d brought a team to the PLAHT and they were excited about being in the marquee game to kick off their tournament.
“It was a super big deal for our guys,” Bull said. “Our guys were pumped to show up to the arena today. They heard they were going to be on TV which they thought was amazing. They lined them up on the blue-line and announced all their names and sang O Canada. All that stuff just adds to the experience.”
Bull said he knew about the tournament’s history and prestige.
“I have a brother-in-law who lives in Lakefield and he always talks about how it’s a big draw. I have an older boy as well and while he never played in it some of his buddies have played in it and talked about how great an experience it was and how big a deal it is locally.”
It was also nice, he said, to kick things off with a win.
“We came out with high energy at the start and it boiled over for us in the game and we took off flying,” he said.
“The hometown guys turned it on and they took it to us. Fortunately, our goaltender had a really good game and was able to button down the hatches through some of our penalty problems and we were able to keep this one as a W. Hats off to that Peterborough team. They’re really good.”
The tournament started Thursday night with a handful of local house league teams playing. All 126 teams hit the ice at 12 area ice pads on Friday. There will be 243 games played over four days with the finals set for the Memorial Centre on Sunday starting at 7 a.m.