La Jolla Jaguars Memorial Weekend Tournament

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, the Jaguar Mite and Squirt Tournament teams took part in exciting tournament play in Orange County.

The Jaguar Squirts played in the KHS Anaheim Cup/International Tournament, participating for the first time ever at the Squirt A level.

The Squirts opened up on Friday, against the home team from KHS.  The heavily favored, and hometown Wildcats were a seasoned team, with tons of speed and skill.   They even imported three kids from Russia for the tournament.   The Jaguars were back on their heels fast giving up a goal scored at 1:08 into the game.   After the wake up call, Drew Jones answered at 2:09.   The goals were back and forth.    The Jaguars took the lead, and then the Wildcats tied it up.  It was definitely a cat fight.   We outscored them each period by a goal.  The final score of this hard fought contest was 9 to 6 Jaguars.    

Goal scorers were Tony Kolesnikov (3), Jack Gitlin (1), Owen Rice (1), Drew Jones (1), Marco Young (1) and Parker Moskal (2).   Assists went to Jack Gitlin (3), Owen Rice (3), Parker Moskal (3), Kenzie DeKeyser (2), Sam Tari (1), Marco Young (1), Drew Jones (1), and Sawyer DeKeyser (1).   Goalie James Dawson, who also had an assist on a short-handed goal by Parker, stopped 24 shots in this hard fought affair.   

We were down two key players, and coaches elected to go with three defensive players in game 1.   Alex Gottwald, Sawyer DeKeyser and Parker Moskal worked very hard, and each played a strong defensive game against a team with incredible speed.   The win allowed the Jaguars to start the tourney on a great note. 

On Saturday, they boys played the Lady Ducks.  This was one great team and there were some amazing skaters out there with size and speed.  We won a scrappy game 4-1.   The Ducks did not want to hand over the game and it felt like they poured it on us for the most of the game.    

Goalie James Dawson was the hero stopping 25 of 26 shots for a .96 save percentage.    The offense again was balanced.   Tyler Osterhoudt provided and several great passes and back checks while goals went to Tony Kolesnikov (1), Drew Jones (1), Marco Young (1), and Owen Rice (1).   Assists went to Jack Gitlin (2), Tony Kolesnikov (1), Marco Young (1) and Drew Jones (1). 

The defense was solid once again and the Jaguars were able to achieve victory #2 against an extremely well-coached team.

On Sunday morning, the Jaguars played the Cool Cats.    We thought the best team was behind us, but we were incorrect.   As it turned out, the Cool Cats were an All-Star team from Los Angeles; A strong collection of players and a fantastic goaltender. The Jags struggled with the strong competitor and the 7:00 AM hour on the way to a 7 to 3 loss. 

Owen Rice found the back of the net twice and Parker Moskal put one in as well.  

Assists went to Jack Gitlin, Sam Tari, Marco Young, and Tony Kolesnikov with one a piece.

As luck would have it, we played the Cool Cats again in the playoffs that night. The Jaguars again came out flat and gave up a quick goal.   Then the officials took over in truly the strangest game we have ever witnessed.  Unfortunately, the calls didn't go our way.   We had a player put in the box for covering the puck in the crease.  Goalie James shut down the attack on the penalty shot, denying a goal and bringing the crowd to their feet.   Twice after that, the opposing team covered the puck in the crease with no call.  Then there was a truly bizarre goal awarded to the opponent on a post shot where the call was delayed so long that we had already scored a goal.   The call represented a 2 goal swing and an opportunity for the boys and coaches to practice "composure" and overcome adversity.   Soon after, the opponents played for 35 seconds with 6 players on the ice.  Again, no call was made by the refs.   We ended the 1^st period down 4 goals to 1.      

The Jaguars absolutely pounded the other team in the second and third periods.   We displayed great courage and came at them in waves.   We were able to climb back to a 5 to 3 game.  We were once again derailed by an interesting penalty call with 3 minutes to go.  We pulled our goalie.  They had a breakaway and we tripped the player up.  They gave the goal to the team without even having to take a penalty shot.  Our player received a game misconduct on top of the penalty.  Final score Cool Cats 6, Jaguars 3.   The Jaguars outshot the opponents 37 to 17, but they just could not get the puck past an extremely tough goalie.    The coaches and parents are proud of the effort, courage, and heart our kids displayed.

Goals in the final game went to Tony Kolesnikov (1), Sam Tari (1), and Marco Young (1); Assisted by Jack Gitlin (1) and Drew Jones (1).

Alex Gottwald had a particularly outstanding tournament and the entire defensive corps did a great job throughout.

All in all, the Jaguars went up against fantastic competition.  They won games, and they fought like champions.  With a few breaks, the outcome could have been very different.

The coaches and parents were very proud of this team.

The Mite tournament (details coming soon) was thrilling and it was great to see families from each team supporting each other as one big Jaguar family.  The entire Squirt team would like to thank the Osterhoudt family for the tournament t-shirts.   It was a wonderful surprise after coming off a tough game.