The Showcase Division of Northwood Invitational Hockey Tournament consisted of 10 teams, including Northwood’s Junior Team. The team faced Nichols School, St Andrews College, and Albany Academy over the three days.
A scene from the 2019 Northwood Invitational (Photo: Mr. Michael Aldridge).
Saturday night the Junior Team faced a Nichols team that had some impressive results recently and were expected to be much better than the Nichols squad the Huskies beat handily earlier in the season in Minnesota. Both teams started the game with a lot of intensity and pace. Although Nichols got on the scoreboard first, Northwood still applied pressure throughout and had the majority of possession. Going into the last ten minutes of the game, the score was tied at 3-3. Both teams fought hard to break the deadlock, but it was Nichols that scored the winner with 2 minutes left in regulation. Northwood continued to press, but could not tie it up. The game ended 4-3 to Nichols. Goals for the Huskies came from Cody Monds (Forward, 2019), Daniel Colabufo (Forward, 2020), and Reid Leibold (Forward, 2020).
Sunday brought the Junior Team’s biggest rival, St Andrews College. The squad knew that this would be a perfect opportunity to break a rare two-game losing streak and get back on the winning track, but St. Andrew’s wouldn’t be an easy opponent. The players were locked in on their jobs from the first puck drop and didn’t stop. St Andrews tallied first but Northwood bounced back. Going into the second period it was 2-1 Northwood with goals from Jerkko Ramo (Forward, 2019) and Monds. St Andrews tied it in the second which meant it would be an intense third with the score tied. Matt Shanklin (Forward, 2019) skated around the goal and buried the puck into the roof of the net, which would prove to be the game-winner. An empty net goal from Reid Leibold (Forward, 2020) made the final score 4-2, a result that was very pleasing for the team and brought much confidence back.
The team next faced Albany Academy in a lunchtime tilt on Monday, the final day of the tournament. The boys had lots of energy following their big win on Sunday night. Albany got an early goal but the Huskies dominated play and created lots of scoring chances. Going into the second period the score was 1-0 Albany Academy. Northwood answered quickly in the second, getting four goals from Colabufo, Josh Waters (Forward, 2019), Jared Lambright (Defense, 2019), and Finlay Ulrick (Forward, 2019). Albany wasn’t going to make it easy on the Huskies and scored two of their own to make the score 4-3 in favor of Northwood heading into the third stanza. The Huskies dominated the third and surged for four additional unanswered goals from Colabufo, Monds, Waters, and Ulrick.
The support from the Northwood student community was exceptional throughout the weekend and the team enjoyed playing in front of a large and enthusiastic student section. We would like to thank all teams for attending and making it a great tournament.
Northwood’s Junior Team travels to Toronto this weekend for the Macpherson Tournament hosted by St Andrews College. They will face Shattuck St Mary’s and Jungadler Mannheim on Friday and Edge School on Saturday, all in the round robin play.
