The Toronto Golden Jets men’s Gold team travelled to Calgary recently for the Canadian national Championships.
On Day 1, with an early morning start after the flight the night before, the Jets were sloppy and listless facing Team Saskatchewan (Sask). The teams kept trading goals in the opening quarter leading to a 4-4 standoff.
Both teams tightened up defensively in the second period with Toronto outscoring Sask 2-1 to take a slim 6-5 lead into halftime.
However, Sask reversed the tables in the third quarter to pull even at 8-8 heading into the final frame.
It took almost half a quarter before the Jets pulled ahead 9-8 only to see Sask respond half a minute later. Again the Jets pulled in front by one and this time it only took Sask 18 seconds to tie it up. Then Sask scored again to forge ahead. Toronto came back less than aminute to tie things up 11-11.
With 41 seconds left, Sask called time out to set up a potential game-winning goal. But the Jets defence rose to the occasion getting the ball back with 14 seconds to go. Head Coach George Gross, Jr. immediately called time out. Going back to set up, Gross, Jr. pulled goalie Andre Velasevic in favour of an extra attacker setting up a 7-on-6 situation. The move paid off when Adam Mekni blasted in his third goal of the game with seven seconds remaining to give Toronto a hard-earned 12-11 victory.
Diego Gonzalez and Mekni led the way for the Jets with hattricks. Richard Laurie and Sam Madadian popped in a pair of goals each. Cam Hexter and Filip Resanovic added singles.
With only a few hours rest, the Jets were back in the pool for a round robin tilt against the heavily favoured host Calgary Torpedoes.
Toronto shook off the morning lethargy and shocked Calgary getting out to a two goal halftime lead. However, the hosts were not to be denied and the Jets fell 14-13 to finish the first day with a win and a loss.
Next up on Day 2 is the final round robin match against Hamilton followed by a quarter final game later in the day.
