CORA’s U19B Bickerton came home successful from their first tournament of the season! The Ice travelled to Vaudreuil-Dorion the weekend of 10-12 December 2021 for the Tournoi Marcial Fontaine 4-Cités.

As one of only two Ontario teams in the tournament, the Ice had a lot to prove! Their first game was a late-night hard-fought 5-3 victory over Montréal-Nord. The team returned to the ice the next evening for another 9 p.m. start, this time against the undefeated St-Eustache Phénix. Ottawa’s ferocious checking disrupted Phénix’s attack, but a change-of-direction shot gave Phénix the edge in a 2-1 result.

Sunday morning, the Ice needed to defeat the home team Stars de 4 Cités in order to make the final. The Stars had the easier route to the final, needing only a tie, but it was still out of reach for them as Ottawa dominated the play and won 3-1.

The gold medal match saw Ottawa face off against Phénix again. Phénix had a much larger team and fan contingent, but to no avail. While the play was fairly even for the first few minutes, Ottawa took advantage of a four-minute major penalty against Phénix to score two goals, and they never looked back. Phénix could not defend against Ottawa’s creative passing in the attacking zone and were continually frustrated by Ottawa’s solid defense, which quickly thwarted almost every Phénix attack and returned the play to Phénix’s end. By half time Ottawa led 4-0, and continued the pressure to conclude the match 5-1.

The coaches were extremely proud of the way the team played, showing perseverance in adversity and outhustling and outplaying their opponents. Particularly noteworthy was the stellar goaltending and the balance in the Ice attack: every forward and centre had at least one goal.

Congratulations U19B Bickerton!

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