Minor bantam Knights go to Detroit

Submitted on behalf of the NobleKing Knights minor bantam hockey team.

Oct. 16 saw the NobleKing minor bantam Knights face Innisfil on their home ice in Stroud.

The first period was scoreless, thanks to some great goaltending by Ben Rossetto who faced many shots from some pretty tough offense from Innisfil.

In the second period, Rossetto stood on his head again and stopped an Innisfil forward in his tracks who had taken off on a breakaway. With three minutes left to play in the second, Innisfil scored to make it 1-0. They scored again in the third to make th final score 2-0.

The following Saturday, the Knights took on the East Gwillimbury Eagles and came away with a win.

After one period of play, there was no score. But early in the second, Knights' forward Thomas Martin buried one past the Eagles' goalie to take the lead. Later in the second, Steven Gianfransesco scored off a pass from George Stepanis to go ahead by two goals. With 18 seconds left on the clock, the Eagles scored to make it 2-1 going into the third period.

With only a few minutes left on the clock in the third period the Eagles pulled their goalie to put an extra forward on the ice, but a nice pass from Stepanis to Martin resulted in a goal on the Eagles' empty net. Great net minding was provided by John Salome as the Knights won 3-1.

The following day in Barrie, the Knights faced the Colts in one of the best games they have played all season.

Early in the first period, Nick Heintzman scored off a pass from Martin to take an early lead, but the Colts responded with three goals toward the end of the first period to take the lead 3-1.

In the second, the Colts struck again and pulled ahead 4-1, but the Knights responded with a goal by Tyler Burtt and then again by Martin to end the second period 4-3 in favor of the Colts.

Early in the third, Martin scored on a nice backhander while on his knees to tie things up 4-4. The Colts respond with another goal a few minutes later, but their lead would be short-lived as the Knights attacked right back on a rush initiated by Martin, who drop passed the puck to defenceman Robbie Pizzicarola, who scored with a low slap shot to tie things up again.

With three minutes on the clock, the Colts put another goal past the Knights' goaltender to pull ahead 6-5, but just when the Knights thought they were out of it and with only a minute left on the clock, Martin made a beautiful pass to Stepanis on a breakaway and he fired a hard shot high over the shoulder of the Colts' goalie off the crossbar into the net.

Even though the Knights walked away tied 6-6, it was a well-played, hard-hitting, come-from-behind game that was a lot of fun to watch.

Last weekend, the Knights headed to Dearbourne, Michigan, to take part in tournament competition against a few American and Canadian teams.

In their first game, the Knights faced the Livingston Lightning, who took an early lead in the first period. Later that in the same period, Gianfrancesco scored to tie things up, assisted by Matt Peruzza and Burtt. One minute later, Michael Noblegreen poke checked a pass to Marco Mussatto, who scored on the resulting breakaway to end the first period 2-1 in favor of the Knights.

In the second, Stepanis scored off a nice pass from Heintzman, but the Lightning responded with another goal a few minutes later and the period ended 3- 2.

In the third period, with only a minute left to play, defenceman Robbie Pizzicarola skated the puck out of the Knights' defensive zone, past most of the Livingston players, and just as he was ready to take a shot, he passed across to hard-charging forward Burtt who one timed it past the Livingston goalie that ended the game 4-2 in favor of the Knights. Ben Rossetto was solid in net and picked up another win to add to his impressive record.

The following morning, in the second game, the Knights were faced with a loss at the hands of Trenton by a score of 3-1. The lone goal for the Knights came from Martin, assisted by Stepanis and Mussatto.

In their third match Saturday afternoon, the Knights took on Tecumseth, the other Canadian team who had crossed the boarder to play in this tournament. Despite a hard-played game by the Knights, they come up short and took another loss by a score of 4-2.

Their first goal was scored by Martin, assisted by Pizzicarola, and the other goal came from Burtt, assisted by Gianfrancesco.

The Knights were eliminated from the championship game Sunday due to goals for and against, even though they had tied for second place. Despite the loss all players and family had a great time in the U.S. and look forward to regular season play this week.