2 down, 1 to go

The first two days of results can now be reviewed at your leisure. The games involving Team Canada have either been lobsided wins or extremely narrow victories. The first opponents were from the west, and a team that we see at the Vancouver tournament on a regular basis, the ever-improving Portland Pounders, who sport in their lineup the ever-changing classified Paralympian Will Groulx, along with 3.0 Lynn Nelson and their experienced player/coach Ed Suhr. The end result was a 16-point balance on the positive side for our goys.

Our second game of the Derby was against the TNT, which features two members of the US 2004 Paralympic Team (2.0 Cliff Chunn and 3.0 Wayne Romero), along with perennial allstar and former Paralympian 0.5 Eddie Crouch. The end result was a comfortable 20-point margin of victory for the cold climate boys in red & white.

On Saturday, we played our final pool game against the top-seeded opponent, the 2004 USQRA Division 1 champs from Texas. The Stampede's lineup was fortified with the Team USA's captain, 3.0 Mark Zupan, along with fellow US Paralympian 1.0 Norm Lyduch and British impact 2.5 Troye Collins from the GB Paralympic Team. With those three players and experienced 1.5 Boston Boy Boothby, they presented a tough challenge, which the Canadians met with a 1-point victory to win Pool "A". Luckily for both teams, we'll meet again the next day...

Meanwhile, in the next gym, a momumental game was happening between Lakeshore and Hoveround, who both play each other a lot, and have a nice rivarly going on in the southeast. It took 5 OVERTIME PERIODS to come out with a winner, and nobody who was polled around the gym could remember any game going on that long – sounds like a true battle – hope we hear more about it soon.... (hint, hint...).

Our final game on Sunday would decide which team made it to the gold, and which team got delegated to the bronze match. We were up against Hoveround, who had recently lost the marathon game against Lakeshore. They play a strong key defence and were formerly coached by former Team Canada coach Joe Soares. We knew what to expect, but having that knowledge and taking advantage of it are two very different things.
Their main lineup consists of 1 Brit, and three Florida boys, 3.0-2.5-2.0-0.5 (Pat O'Connor - GB's Ross Morrison - Dave Jenkins - Joel Post). Mister Morrison in the mixture gives them nice speed, skilled hands, and a tall body, which is a sweet combination of assets in one player. However, their small bench team was tired after their marathon, and played a low scoring key defense / keep away style game against us which kept the score tight throughout the game, such that with 10 seconds left to play in the game, we were down by 1. Fabien Lavoie gets the ball, rushes near the Hoveround key, and calls time out with 5.8 seconds left on the clock. We then subbed out 3.0 Fab and 1.5 Patrice and brought in the BC boyz, 3.5 Garett Hickling and 1.0 Trevor Hirschfield, leaving fellow BC Bandit 3.0 Ian Chan on the court with 0.5 Daniel Paradis from the Quebec Impact. Ian throws a long pass to the far end of the key.... goal for G. Tie game. We zoom on back to the key, except for Ian, who remains to put pressure on the Hoveround offence. He steals the ball, gets spun, and while being spun calls another time out.

We rush back in the key with 2.4 seconds left. Ian throws another bomb on the far side of the key to the capable hands of Captain G for another goal, game over.

Repeat after me: Ehm Vee Pea, Ehm Vee Pea, M.V.P!

I'll check in with the team following their final game of the tournament.

More from the Journal when we return...