Hockey Finals

This was finals weekend for the Coconuts and House A hockey. After completing the round robin with a 3-0 record, which included 2 shutouts and only 1 goal against, the Coconuts faced the same team they played last week, the Warriors. They won that game 1-0, but the score wasn't very reflective of the game itself since they dominated the majority of it. That said, 1-0 is still a close score, so there was reason to be nervous about their chances.

Turns out we had nothing to worry about. After a somewhat slow start, the Coconuts found their rhythm and cruised to a 3-0 victory, which included an empty net goal. Below, I've included several videos of the final moments of the game as well as the celebration afterwards.

My intention was to video the last minute or so of the game for posterity. Who knew I'd get an empty net goal?

With that out of the way, the game could finally reach its ending and the kids celebrated.

Next up was the medal ceremony where they got their gold medals.

And finally, they got a chance to skate around the ice with the cup before taking a team picture.

Here's a closer view of the team photo that I downloaded from the league's Facebook page (Lucas is third from the left in the top row):

And finally, here's a photo of Lucas clowning around with the cup/trophy and the team mascot, Coco.

You'd think that would be the end of it, but because Lucas is in House A this year, the Kanata champion plays the Nepean champion the next day in what is called the interlock final. Rather than draw it out, I'll tell you up front that the Coconuts lost 2-0.

However...

All season long, Nepean has absolutely dominated Kanata in interleague games. Speaking for the Coconuts, they had a single win (which was in a tournament) and one tie in their Nepean games, and the other Kanata teams fared about as well. So coming into this game, we didn't expect much.

Much to our (or at least my) surprise, today's final final was a very competitive game. Whereas in past games this season, it was all the Coconuts could do to hold on, it was a back-and-forth affair. With a bounce or two here or there, it could very well have been 2-0 the other way. So that was great to see. As I said in a Facebook post earlier, short of a win, this was the best possible ending to the season. And you know what? They are still the Kanata champions, and that's what matters at the end of the day. Well, that and they had fun. :)

Next weekend is the end of the year party and then that's in for hockey this season. It'll be sad since it's a great group of kids and parents. Plus, after two years with the same awesome coach, it's very unlikely Lucas will have him next year since he'll likely only be coaching his younger son. But we've been very lucky with coaches as all of them have been good so fingers crossed the streak will continue.

And now that hockey is over, Lucas is about to start a new challenge: lacrosse! He has sortouts next weekend and then the league starts soon after. So no rest for the weary! Keep an eye out for pictures from that adventure.