2016 Silver Sticks Regional

This past Holiday weekend, the Oakland Bears participated in the 2016 Silver Sticks Regional tournament at the Solar4America Ice rinks in San Jose, CA. The Bears' organization was well represented in three divisions as we sent two 8U (Mite) teams, a 10UBB (Squirt) and 12UA (Peewee) team. 

The 12UA team drew the short straw as they were scheduled to play a single game over the entire weekend, beginning on Wednesday night. They dropped the first game to the host team, San Jose, 3-0; won a complete game 5-0 over the San Diego Saints; lost a heartbreaker with 38 seconds left in the game against San Francisco; and fought back with too little, too late against a tough Lake Tahoe team, 5-3. 

The 10UBB team were one of the most prolific scoring teams in their division as they had a staggering 33GF and 10GA before heading into the playoff portion of the tournament. On their way to the Semi-finals, they beat the Santa Clara Blackhawks, 6-5; San Jose Jr. Sharks BB2, 10-1; California Heat, 12-2; San Francisco Sabercats, 5-2. The cross-divisional playoff format gave the Bears a game against a very similar Cupertino Cougars (32GF, 12GA). The teams battled through three periods of 1-1 hockey, but that was not enough to determine the victor. An additional period of five minutes was put up on the clock and the teams played 4 v 4 hockey. About halfway through the period, the Cupertino Cougars were able to put home a good goal, and launched themselves into the Finals. Overall, a good outing for the 10UBB players and experience gained moving forward. 

The highlight of the Bears organization came at the hands of the 8U/6U (Mite) program as they sent two teams to compete in the tournament. Team 2 was able to compete ferociously and earn their respect on the ice as they managed to keep it close against some of the top teams in the tournament.

Team 1 stole the show over the weekend as they poured on the goals and did not let up until the tournament was over. This team had the best goal differential (53GF, 17GA) amongst the Mite Division and had to play in the Championship game over their big brother club, the San Jose Sharks! The game was fought until the bitter end, where the Bears were able to stave off any comeback from the extremely deep bench of 15 skaters (compared to our 8 skater bench) and raucous San Jose crowd at Center Ice, 6-4. 

A big congrats to all of our teams that competed, and we are truly excited for what the future holds!! We hope everyone had the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with their family, friends and teammates! 

GO BEARS!!!