Novice A Knights capture silver medal at Pickering tournament

April 10, 2013 · 0 Comments

Last weekend the NobleKing novice A Knights put the hockey world on notice that a new powerhouse has arrived on the scene.
In their busiest weekend of hockey all season the Knights put on a show that left their opponents open-mouthed with surprise. Based on a flurry of hard work and scrimmages with older Knights players in the last month since the playoffs ended, the Knights have come an enormous way and improved hugely over their second-from-the-bottom regular season results.
The Knights started the tournament on Thursday evening with a match against their league rivals Aurora. Having never beaten Aurora in the regular season, NobleKing was primed for payback.
Michael Critelli led off the scoring on a beautiful goal assisted by Nat Bannister and Juliano DeAngelis. Bannister quickly followed that up from a great pass by Matthew Siarkas, and Julien Di Tullio rounded out the scoring with a great redirection in the last minute of the game.
Despite finishing 4 positions higher in the league standings, Aurora was simply no match for the Knights’ onslaught falling 3-1 and wondering where this team came from.
Friday’s matchup against the Richmond Hill Stars (3 positions higher in the standings) saw NobleKing open the scoring quickly with Bannister putting away a beautiful pass from Ben Wright only 82 seconds into the game. Excitement was running high when Daniel Cotroneo found himself with a penalty shot in the third period and made no mistake with a bullet shot past the goalie to give the Knights the go-ahead and eventual game winning goal. Less than two minutes later, Critelli combined with Campbell Carlisle and DeAngelis, followed shortly by Bannister from Brogan Grammenz as the Knights downed the Stars 4-1.
The sun rose on Saturday to find the team gathered to face off against the Milton Winterhawks in an early morning matchup. The game was close with Milton taking a 1-0 lead in the first period and holding it until the Knights’ third period pressure broke through with two goals. The Knights tried to put the game away with a long distance shot at the Milton empty net that had everyone screaming as it hit the post. Goalie Will Swanson fought off a scramble in front of the net in the dying seconds to cement the victory.
Critelli set a new team record by scoring the first goal against the Oak Ridge Aeros in the Knights’ second game on Saturday only 19 seconds into the game on a play from Cotroneo and David Paglia. On defence Eva Harrison played warrior blocking shot after shot. Two more goals in the third period weren’t enough to hold off the Aeros but the Knights’ hard work had earned them a spot in the finals.

Knights win silver

In the gold medal game the team executed their special Knight defensive trap beautifully, keeping the score low and tied through the first two periods against the much stronger Aeros. Offensive pressure was kept at a fever pitch and ferocious battles along the boards were waged by wingers Carlisle, Di Tullio, DeAngelis, Grammenz and Siarkas. Di Tullio put the Knights on the board first on a pass from Noah Willis. Di Tullio would score both goals for the Knights in this game. In the end it was a hard-fought match with the Knights taking home the silver medal.
In a testament to their incredible stamina and high fitness levels, the Knights scored 11 of their 14 goals in the third period of their games. The defensive team of Harrison, Paglia, Willis and Wright did a phenomenal job of clearing, checking, blocking shots and performing impressive offensive rushes.
Tournament MVP honours went to Will Swanson who continually outdid himself by making ever more incredible saves. His glove hand was flying; he shut down difficult deke attempts, and even knocked one shot out with the butt end of his stick.
Congratulations to the whole team and thanks for a fantastic season to players and parents alike from the coaching staff of Dave Carlisle, Jody Willis, Dave Swanson, Sabrina Critelli, and Doug Bannister.