by Madison T.
The Can/Am Hockey Tournament takes place every year in Lake Placid NY, teams from all around North America come to Lake Placid to participate. “ The reason we do tournaments like this is to give the team an opportunity to play challenging teams from other parts of North America,” Sue Twombly, U12 Islanders Mj. 2 team manager says. And indeed we did. The Islanders lost their first 1-6 against the Clarington Flames, from Ontario. The Clarington Flames played a whole different game against us than we’re used to. I mean they are Canadians after all, it’s in their blood right? The whole game they were pushing and shoving, knocking us down and taking slap shots straight at us, boy were they good… and mean.
We didn’t lose every game, we beat one team, the Flameboro Falcons, who were also from Ontario, The first time we played them we beat them 6-4, it was a pretty good game, we played really well throughout. The next game we were playing our rivals, the Minuteman Lady Flames. We’d played them several times before, every time they won, at least by 3 points. But this game was different, we played a “hard and physical game” as our coach had said. We used a new strategy our coach showed us before the game, this allowed us to shut down there number 1 girl that scored all their goals. After a well-fought game, we tied them 1-1.
We lost our last game against the Flameboro Falcons, but the refs “completely threw the game” as our coach said. They kept repeatedly hooking and tripping, but the refs didn’t call anything.
“I think you guys played some very challenging teams, but you held your own throughout,” Sue Twombly told me during our very professional interview in the car, driving to practice.
One really cool thing about the tournament was the “Olympic feel” of it. To start, the tournament took place in Lake Placid which is where the 1980s Olympics took place, we even got to play in the 80’s rink which is where the US finally beat the Soviet, in the famous Miracle On Ice game. At the beginning of the tournament, we had the opening ceremonies where all the teams participating walked onto the ice, they were followed by 4 huge flags, 2 American, and 2 Canadian. The coolest part was the torch though, after both the anthems were played someone carried a large torch engulfed in flames, onto the ice, he walked up to this huge pop-up platform and dropped the torch into this hupe steel bowl, I think it was filled with some kind of flammable material. The bowl immediately caught the flames, it’s hard to describe but it was just a huge steel bowl, with flames “jumping out of it” As someone had described it.
Another really cool part of the tournament was the skills competition. Each team selected five players and a goalie. One player and one goalie to do the shootout competition, the other four players do a relay. The shoutout was so much fun to watch, the girl from my team got third, the Clarington Flames girl got second, and the Flameboro Falcons girl got first. Next was the relay. They set up six cones around the rink, every team of four had one stick, you had to pass the stick to the next person once you completed a lap around the 6 cones. I skated anchor in the relay, it was really fun, but also super nerve racking! We ended up in third after the relay, again. “ I think it was really cool that they handed out glass plaques and awards, they even had announcers and camera footage, and the competition was very fun to watch for the whole team,” Twombly remarks in our interview.
As great as the tournament was, there were a few things that could change. For starters, they should have let us choose our own accommodations and dining, “ there are a lot of choices for great hotels and dining options that we missed, we ended up in an okay hotel, but a horrendous dining situation,” Twombly claims. One night we skipped our meal plan and went out to really good restaurant. “Everyone was so happy to see a menu with good options, even any options to begin with.”
One other small thing was the refs, all I can say is they were terrible, the other teams would hook, slash, trip, but nothing was ever called. I swear, half the refs were like 86 years old, with really poor eyesight and super mean glares. They need good refs, who actually know how to blow their whistles!
“It was cool, a long drive, but definitely a unique experience. For a tournament like this, being in a historical destination is what makes it so unique and immersive.” Twombly says when asked about the whole experience. I personally think that the tournament was fun and interesting, but it would also be a lot more fun in the summer when there’s more to do. One question remains on our minds, was the whole experience worth doing again, or is it a cool thing to do once, but find something better to do next year?
