Ottawa Sting Major Midget "AA" League CHAMPIONS

A tumultuous season came to a tremendous finish for the Major Midget AA!!  Almost unbelievable! The team started the season with great promise – in fact they notched up 14 straight wins and a tournament championship in Toronto. Then the wheels fell off. Players and coaches left. They were down to one goalie – and then, the one and only remaining goalie who started with the team left early December. It looked like the team was finished. The coach, desperate to keep things going, even posted ads for players.
 
Miraculously – they found a new goalie just in time to continue. They also picked up some awesome new players to replace the ones that left. With their new ‘one and only’ goalie they went on from there to win a one day tournament that gave them the right to attend the Ontario Winter Games in Owen Sound. They were thrilled and started to believe in their team again. However, Gloucester, who lost against Sting in the tournament was not happy about Sting going to the Ontario Winter Games and protested. They felt they truly deserved that honour. After all – at that point in the season Gloucester was in 2nd place and Sting was in 5th.  "Was the league really going to send a 5th place team to the games?”  But the league said we earned our right to go fair and square. Besides, things soon changed in the standings, with Sting ending up 3rd in the regular season behind Gloucester and Nepean.
 
In the first round of the playoffs Sting took Cumberland 3 straight. However the next series with Gloucester did not go as well. Due to a scheduling mix up Gloucester had home ice advantage for the first 2 games in a row – and the boys lost both of those games – in fact - they lost the second game 6-2!. Facing almost certain elimination they showed a lot of heart and came back and took the 3rd game 5-1. They then left for the Winter Games – where they didn’t play well at all – but had a fantastic time and bonded as a team. They also came back with even more determination and motivation to take out Gloucester and despite being on the brink of elimination took the next 2 games. They were in the finals! However they were facing Nepean – a team who had lost just 5 games all year – just 5!  Saying the Sting were the underdogs was an understatement. But the team played with incredible heart. They remained disciplined in play – they fought every battle like it was the last and they took Nepean in 4 straight to win the league championship. Who would have believed it!

Donna Ronayne

Manager
Ottawa Sting, Major Midget AA  

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Congratulations to the players and team officials!

from the Ottawa Sting Minor Hockey Association Executive