The Kanata Atom ‘A’ Thunder travelled to Oshawa on Feb 19th to take part in the 5th Annual Bob Black Memorial Hockey Tournament and came away with a dramatic gold medal win.

The Kanata Thunder’s journey began with a 5-2 win against the Orleans Roadrunner on the first day of the tournament.  It was a well played game as Kanata’s defence and offence proved to be effective.

Top Left: Asst Coach Al Matheson, Trainer Kevin Stokes, Jake Weeks, Manager Dan Kyle, Coach Tamer Gabbour
3rd row Left: Alex Trzmiel, Matthew Laidlaw, Priyesh Mistry, Erik Devlin, Tim Bradley
2nd row Left: Brennan Kyle, Dylan Rouse, Matt Stokes, Miikah Keeshig, Christopher Carwardine, Christopher Gabbour
Lying in Front: Cameron Caron, Brandon Fasken, Jake Matheson.

With a good nights’ rest, Kanata went into their second game on Saturday morning with confidence against the host team the Durham Crusaders. Durham came out with strong skating and puck control and took the game with a decisive 10-2 score. We later found out that they had not lost a tournament game this season.
Kanata had to regroup quickly as the third game took place only a few hours later. The team re-focused on fundamentals and goaltending and took game three against the Future Stars with a score of 8-0. With this win, Kanata earned a spot in the gold medal game on Sunday morning against the host team the Durham Crusaders. The boys were confident they could overcome the scoring juggernaut that had outscored their opponents 19-4 in three games.
Kanata arrived at the newly built Legends Recreation complex more than one hour before the Gold Medal Game and loosened up by doing some calistenics, playing hand hockey with a tennis ball. Then it was down to business. A quick team meeting before the game to review strategy....and off to the ice we went. Kanata jumped out to a 1-0 lead. The Durham Crusaders were in shock. Kanata continued to play with confidence utilizing some great forechecking and backchecking to pull out a 4-2 WIN and the GOLD MEDAL!!! The final game MVP’s went to the goalies Cameron and Miikah and the tournament MVP went to Alex Trzmiel who scored a hat trick in the final. In fact, every member of the Kanata Thunder stepped up to bring the Gold Medal to Kanata. WAY TO GO BOYS!!!