Pictures from the 2011 Thunder Over Michigan Airshow:

Of all the games we played this weekend, this victory was by far my favorite. This game was against an opponent that we have struggled with all year long. We’ve played them 4 times previously and lost 4 times as well. They’re an aggressive team and for two years we’ve watched them bully the league teams into very tense situations. Their star player has nearly 100 penalty minutes for the year. The coaching staff screams at the kids, refs, other coaches and are an embarrassment to their organization.
So along come the Hawks who they’ve beat 4 times already this season. And we go down by 3 goals early. Questionable goals at that. But then something amazing happened. Mikey locked them down and the boys started to come back. And then it was tied with just a few minutes to go. A tie would mean overtime or possibly a shootout. But then we scored with a minute and half left in the third! For the first time ever, against this team, we had taken the lead! With a minute left, their goalie was pulled and the puck started coming at Mikey. He did an amazing job of fighting it off and his defense really fought to keep the puck on the boards. The video shows the last minute of the game:

After fighting off about 100 shots for the weekend, Mike emerged from the tournament with 1st place in hand!

He played well, always kept the team in the game when the ice seemed to be tilted his way and he never gave up when they were behind.

The entire team really stepped up the game and we were so happy that they able to come away with the Championship Trophy!

A few shots from our outdoor game in St. Joseph.

It was an insanely warm 20 degrees at puck drop! Mikey faced nearly 40 shots by the end of the game, only giving up 1 controversial goal (kicked in).

A great time was had by all.

A few shots from Christmas morning and the goalie camp a few days after: