The Novice Rep team travelled to Ripley Dec. 28-30 to compete in the Regional Silver Stick tournament. The team was up against challenging teams in their “C” grouping, played well, but did not advance out of their group.
The Mad Dogs played their first game against Langton and found themselves down within two minutes of the start of the game. However, Minto’s efforts were rewarded in the second period, putting them on the scoreboard. Langton pulled ahead again and the period drew to a close with Minto down 2-1. With five seconds left in the second period, Minto tied the score at 2-2. Then in the third period, Minto’s hard work and skating paid off and they broke through to get three more to win the game 5-2.
Minto met a very strong team from Norwich and had the opportunity to watch them in a previous win against Durham. With some of that knowledge, Minto kept the score very close for the majority of the game. Both teams had good chances to score and the game could have gone either way, but Minto came out at the short end of a 3-1 score.
Minto still had a chance to advance to the semifinals with a tie or win against Durham. The Mad Dogs gave it their all, but again came up short and lost 4-3.
Norwich went on to play Seaforth in the final and won the Novice Regional Silver Stick tournament and qualified to play in the International tournament in St. Clair Shores in Michigan.
The Novice Rep team’s first scheduled game of 2010 was against Elma-Logan, and Minto came out on the winning side of a 5-2 score.
Elma-Logan was able to keep the score close until the third period, and kept battling until the end.
Minto’s first goal was scored by Josh Gray assisted by Parker Miller at 6:43 in the first period. With a minute left in the first period, Miller scored, assisted by Ryan Litt, to put Minto up 2-0. After solid defensive efforts from Minto, Elma- Logan got a breakaway and scored. With just under two minutes of play in the second period, Miller  scored with assists going to Litt and Andrew Mallett.
Elma- Logan kept battling Minto and came up with a goal just into the third period to make it 3-2. There was no more scoring until the end of the third period. With 1:35 left in the game, Miller managed to score, assisted by Boston Will, to give him a hat trick and Minto some breathing room. Litt then picked up a pass from Mallett and finished the scoring for a 5-2 win.