Congratulations
to all the Kitchener Lady Rangers U18 “A’s” who spent the weekend in Windsor winning
a well-deserved Hocktoberfest 17 tournament Silver!
The Lady Rangers started things off early Friday morning against Chatham Kent. Making the most of their limited opportunities, the Lady’s took a 2 – 0 lead after the first. Settling in for a better second period, the Lady’s added one more and held on in the 3rd to pick up their first win of the tournament. Game two had the Lady’s facing U19 St. Clair Shores. The Lady’s jumped out to an early 2 – 0 lead which is when the roller-coaster ride began. With several blown coverage's, leads were lost and re-gained, ending with a game that saw the season’s most goals for as well as the most goals against, all in just forty minutes (a reminder, when you have someone down….). A slow start in game three saw the Lady’s out played and out chanced by Cambridge. Capitalizing on a penalty shot opportunity, the Lady’s second period lead was quickly erased with a missed PK assignment. Tied late in the third, a low tipped point
shot gave the Lady’s a hard fought 2 – 1 win. Game four started as a lopsided affair. Heavily out played and out chanced, the Lady’s were down 2 – 0 heading into the break, with no meaningful opportunity over the first twenty-five minutes of play. When you are down in life, you have a couple of options. Curl up and stay down or get up swinging. In a period that bore no resemblance to the first two, the Lady’s played solid “Lady Ranger’s hockey, tied the game up and took their seventh of eight points of the tournament.
Finishing second in their pool, game five would be a crossover semifinal elimination against the first place Lakeshore Lightning. After a strong first, a lazy backcheck would put the Lightning up early in the second. A “funny” (but not to Lakeshore) boards bounce put the Lady’s on the board before a beautiful D stretch pass put them up buy one heading into the break.
In what was a theme for several of the goals against in the tournament, lack of attention in our D-Zone coverage had the game tied mid third. Late in the game a strong D shot on net would give the Lady’s the “W” and send them to the finals (for the fourth time in the last four years) in a rematch with Toronto Leaside. In a low shooting finals game on both sides, Leaside took a 2 – 0 lead into the third and added a late empty netter to seal their tournament gold.
James, Ken and I would like to thank all the ladies for their hard work and efforts this weekend. We understand and appreciate everyone’s patience in settling in with our systems of play and our expectations both on and off the ice. We practice for a reason. When we are on about your “D-Zone” responsibilities, keeping your heads on a swivel, watching the “chest” and making those short passes, this weekend demonstrated why. We want you to capitalize on the “opportunities” that you are generating and appreciated your determination, work ethic and many smart choices and options that were made. We will continue to build on our current foundation (yes there is work to do) but please know that we are pleased with everyone’s progress to date (although, again apologetically, the St. Clair game was a tough one for me).
To the parents, thanks for your support and comments this weekend. Although we remain a work in progress, we hope you enjoyed the games and everyone’s efforts as much as we did. We would also like to thank the Stonecroft staff for all their hospitality. Your welcome sign and hospitality rooms for both our player and parent team building was greatly appreciated!
Our thanks to Chatham Kent (3-0), St. Clair Shores (6-4), Cambridge (2-1), Leaside (2-2) Lakeshore (3-2) and Leaside (3-0) for six well played games of hockey. On behalf of the Lady Rangers players and staff, congratulations to Toronto Leaside on their Gold Medal win.
