Well it was a well-fought Brown tournament this year down in Melbourne for the 2002 Australian Jr. Hockey Championships.

The tournament wasn’t without drama, as all good tournaments should have. We all got off to a slow start as when the ACT and SA showed up for the first game of the tournament the boys were told that unfortunately, the drive shaft on the Zamboni was broken and the game would have to be delayed.

Some good mechanics and smart thinking got the boys on at 8:30 right after the opening ceremonies.

The ACT came to play that night and picked apart the under strength SA team to a score of 13-1. SA to their credit played a tough heavy hitting game right to the end.

The next game came at an early hour not fit for anyone unless you are still up at the Crown from the night before, this was a grudge match between NSW and Victoria, from what I hear, it was too cold and too early for me to get out of bed to watch, but it was a hard fought battle played with all the aggression either team could muster, on this occasion Victoria finished off the victor 6-2.

Game three saw NSW and SA battle out to a 4-1 victory to NSW leaving SA in a very bad spot in trying to make the semi finals with one game to go against Victoria.

Game 4 was a much anticipated match up between the Victorians and ACT, ACT had been hearing all week how Victoria was the best team at the tournament and how they would steamroll the ACT, unfortunately for the Vics, the ACT was just as fired up to beat them and did so with a convincing 7-2 victory.

Saturday morning and I couldn’t get out of being up at the crack of before dawn. I think it may have been 5:15 am when I rolled out of bed, but hey NSW were waiting for us and we didn’t want to disappoint. This was a great fought game, the teams were tied 2-2 after 2 periods but the third changed all that with both teams making goaltender changes and the ACT forwards putting on a bit of a show with some outstanding passing to end the game 7-4 victors.

The last game of the round robin was between NSW and SA; NWS routed the SA team 10-0 and had improved every game leading up to their semi final clash with the Victorian.

At the end of Round Robin play the standing were as follows:

After this game I managed to get roped in to coach the SA team against the Melbourne Ice of the AIHL and it was a lot of fun, the SA boys came out and played better than I had seen them play all tournament. We got down right away 4-0 after the first but to the guys credit they held the Ice to a 1-1 score in the second and third period, ending it in a 5-1 lost but with high spirits and a sense of being a better team than they showed during the tournament ( I am sure the carton helped out too, didn’t it boys), hats off boys you did really well.

Now to the grand final between NSW and Act, and what a final. The ACT came out flying with some hard fore-checking good solid defense and a couple of goals to lead after two periods. Discussions in our shed we optimistic but knowing full well that the 2-0 lead is the scariest thing to have in a game, this proved all too true in the third.

NSW came out like a cat with a firecracker burning (well you know where), they fore checked back checked and checked everything else that moved. Leaving the ACT running around searching for a way out of their our defensive zone. And before ACT knew it they were now on the wrong end of a 3-2 score line. This is where the dramas started, ACT thought they had an equalizer with about 5 minutes to go with Josh Darke seemingly roofing one under the bar and when the light went on, the bench went nuts only to have the goal disallowed. To ACT’s credit they did not give up just went back to work and were rewarded with a Stevey Deans special with around a minute to go. He almost topped it off with a breakaway in the last 15 seconds but the NSW defense reeled him in and no joy for Act.

So Ot is it and it was an uneventful period other than a 2-minute minor assessed to the Act and the 10-minute period came to an end with the teams still tied at 3-3. So off to the shoot out, in the first 5 shots only Steve Deans(ACT) and Andrew White(NSW) could finish leaving the game at 4-4, now we are into sudden death shootout. I couldn’t watch, it was that tense, I apologize to the NSW player that scored but I wasn’t watching so I can’t mention you name, then Mark Rummukainen cruised in and buried the equalizer to make it 5-5. Nsw then scored again on a great move by their player, sorry didn’t see that one either but I did see the last shot by Josh Darke of Qld who was playing for ACT, goalie made a nice save and they walked away with the shield for the second straight year against the ACT.

I just want to congratulate all of my guys that walked away with the tournament awards and am especially proud of the disipline to walk away with the fair play award, not something I ever expected one of my teams to get. To all the bash f#ck guys, set up guys and snipers, great job. Defense and goalies, you know how well you played so I am not going to tell you again and to every other guy that played on all the other teams that fit in any of these positions awesome job and seeya next year.

Congrats NSW

If you have any comments regarding this account please email me on hunt9@hotmail.com

Brad Hunt
ACT coach