Oh Canada!

Day 4 of the tour started early for the players, chaperons and boosters. A quick breakfast at the Best Western and it was "All Aboard". The buses headed back into Detroit and crossed the "Bridge to Canada" also known as the Ambassador Bridge. The skies were grey though the sun was fighting through as it came up over the horizon. Expecting a long delay at customs, Don had all the paper work ready to go. The drivers went in, 30 seconds later they were back on the bus with a message from the Canadian Customs.... "Have a fun trip!". (Ed: I told Don, don't expect such luck on the trip back!)

Around 11am, the buses stopped for a rest break. The sign on the stop....... "Tim Hortons". For those who don't know about a Tim Hortons, its a mix of a Dunken Donuts, with killer coffee. A local said that the coffee must be laced with heroin considering how addictive it is. Tim Hortons is affiliated with Wendy's Hamburgers, so this stop also had a Wendy's as well. The team had a brunch there and reboarded. About an hour later the teams arrived at the Holiday
Inn in Cambridge.

While waiting on Don to get the room keys, several players and parents took the opportunity to go to the bank across the street and do a cash exchange. The teams had a quick meeting in one of the meeting rooms of the hotel to go over rules and chaperon and billeting assignments. The kids were dismissed to their rooms to get changed into their pre-game uniforms and then it was aboard the buses to the Cambridge Center.

The Cambridge Center is a fairly large mall, single level but larger than Cary Towne Center. The mall, besides having the normal mall shops had a large theater and of course an NHL sized indoor rink. Most of the games were to be played here. The plan was to have the players eat an late lunch/early dinner at the food court. The PeeWee's and Bantams would play there later. The Midgets boarded their bus at 4:30 to head to Guelph to await their first Canadian foe,
a U17 team the Guelph Storm.

Danny Sirois started off the scoring with an assist from Chris Miracle and Makie Hayman. The Storm battled back and eventually took a 2-1 lead. The American teams were rudely introduced to the Canadian "Checking from Behind" rule which is a 2 minute penalty, an ejection from the current game and one other as Miracle was tossed for a clean check. After discussing the situation, the extra game penalty was taken off. Under USA Hockey rules, checking from behind is a 2 minute minor with a 10 minute misconduct tacked on (the team is short handed for 2 minutes, but doesn't get the offending player back for an additional 10). D. J. Witherspoon buried a rebound from a Bond Danku slapper. Goalie Sean Kudrick had a fantastic game between the pipes.

The game officially ended as a 2-2 tie, but for fun they did a shootout in which the Storm ended up taking 3-0. Cameron White was awarded the Star of the game from Carolina, an award based on the other coaches nomination.

The officiating was horrid, but it was bad both ways, though Carolina ended up with nearly three times the penalties. The Guelph organizers apologized for the officiating. According to them, the referee was the worst referee in their association. Had they known he was
scheduled for the game, they would have gotten it changed.

After the game, the midgets headed back to the Cambridge Center to catch dinner and watch the PeeWee game. After the PeeWee game, they headed back to the Hotel to get ready for an early game. The PeeWee's finished their game with a 1-1 tie. The Bantams played afterwards and lost to the Cambridge Hawks 5-1.

A bus load of tire players called it a night.