Jul 13, 2023 | Ray Mullins | 119 views
2014 RELM Recap - Sunshine Cup Day 1
The relentless 2014 RELM team opened tournament play strong with 2 games yesterday. This is the story.
The 2014 RELM team coached by Mitch Larabie and Christian Tsukamoto played at 7:40am yesterday for their first game and strong perseverance despite going down 2-0 to the Atlantic Prospects in the first, but they battled back scoring two unanswered goals to tie the game at 2. They would keep bringing the fight but still went down 4-2 to start the third. After a strong pep talk at the intermission the boys would come out flying and brought the game back yet again to tie it midway through the 3rd. The score would stay that way until late in the third period when the Atlantic Prospects would add one more goal to make it 5-4. The boys would give one last ditch effort and pull the goalie with just over a minute left in the period but surrendered an empty net goal to finish the game with a 6-4 loss but came away with a lot of positives.
In preparation for game two coach Larabie stated "The boys have no quit and refused to give in, we came up short last time but this has given us more drive to keep pushing. The team as a whole is hungry and we've shown we're not going to be pushed over so easily."
They squad showed that drive in game 2 going up 1-0 early in their 11:40am game vs Florida Wild. However, the Wild wouldn't go away so easily adding 4 unanswered goals to make the score 4-1 with their 4th coming early into the 2nd period. Despite the onslaught from the Wild, the boys would bring one of their own scoring 4 goals of their own in the 2nd to take back a 5-4 lead late into the period. Despite time running out in the period the Wild would keep coming back and tied the game at 5, but in an impressive final minute the boys would retake the lead not once but twice going up 6-5 then having to go up again 7-6. But it still wasn't enough as the Florida Wild yet again, would tie the game 7-7 early in the third. The scoreboard would stay quiet until the end of the game despite many attempts by both teams, even a penalty shot would happen but our very own netminder Christopher would shut it down with 3 minutes left in the game.
As to be expected with a hard fought game like this, regulation would not be enough, a shootout was needed. The shootout would go two rounds with both teams scoring in the first round. A goal for our squad would be rewarded with a massive stop from Christopher and gave our boys the hard earned victory they so deserved with a final score of 8-7.
The boys are back in action twice today with their 8:15 game still going on vs Tampa Bulls and later with an afternoon matinee when they get another shot at the Atlantic Prospects.