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U16 Finishes 2nd in Charlotte Hemby Cup

By Dan Day, 10/28/14, 1:00PM EDT

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The U16 Whalers hit the road for their first away tournament of the year and the Hemby Cup in Charlotte, NC 24-26 October 2014.  The tournament included CBHL Rival Prince William Panthers along with the Charleston Jr Stingrays, Atlanta Jr Knights, Orlando Jr Knights and Carolina Lightning to round out the U16A division.

The Charleston Jr Stingrays established themselves as the team to beat in the opening game for the Whalers, jumping to an early 4-1 lead.  By the end of the second period the lead had spread to 7-2.  However, a long 5 on 3 power play resulted in two quick goals for the Whalers early in the third along with a significant shift in momentum.  However, the gap could not be closed further with the game ending up as a 7-4 win for Charleston.

Saturday became a rallying day for the Whalers, who put the opening game loss behind them and went to work.  First up were the Atlanta Junior Knights.  The Whalers played dominating hockey, limiting Atlanta to just five shots in total and lighting up the net with an 8-0 win.  Next up were the Orlando Jr Knights.  Again, the Whalers controlled the tempo throughout the game. Playing very hard defensively against a significantly larger team while taking advantage of scoring opportunities to net a 6-1 victory.  Day two of the tournament left the Whalers in third place in the round robin with four points, one behind the Carolina Lightning and two behind the Charleston Jr Stingrays.  However, the Whalers held tournament fate in their hands Sunday morning as a win against Carolina would see the Whalers through to the tournament final.  The Sunday morning game was a hard hitting affair but the Whalers dominated both puck possession and zone time, limiting Carolina chances and striking in timely fashion to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the second period.  Carolina closed the gap in the second period on a strange play that saw a Whaler gloved down puck fall behind the Whaler’s goalie and into the net.  The Whalers shook that off and regained the two goal margin in the third period and never looked back.  This set-up a rematch against the Charleston Jr Stingrays in the tournament final.

The Whalers opened the scoring in the first period, capitalizing on a Stingrays penalty and some superb puck movement on the power-play with a great back-door goal from Cody Wilson.  The Stingrays evened things late in the first period, with a seeing eye shot from a bad angle which went off the far post, crossbar then in.   Period two would remain scoreless, with the Whalers carrying the bulk of the play and scoring chances.  With four minutes remaining in the third period, Charleston capitalized on a rush up the left wing and a shot from the top of the face-off circle that went top shelf, giving them the lead.  The Whalers applied pressure, the Stingrays would bend but not break to notch a hard fought 2-1 victory.

The U16s fought hard against what could have been a spirit breaking opening game loss and rebounded with tournament finalist honors.  Next up, two weeks of exhibition games in Raleigh against theU16 Hurricanes and East Coast Eagles, league games against Prince William and the Thanksgiving Classic tournament in Philadelphia.  Well done Whalers!