The weekend of January 6-8,
2017 is one that will always be happily remembered by our team. Our Lady
Rangers played their hearts out in the,“Woodstock Wildcats Tournament”. It was
a weekend packed with lots of excitement, cheering and celebration. The first
of the four game round robin started on Friday at 8:00am. They competed against
The Tillsonburg Lightning. Little did they know, this was the beginning
of their fantastic winning streak.
Our Lady Rangers had their game face on and were fearless beating Tillsonburg 5-1 They played that evening against Burlington Teal Tigers. This was another amazing game that finished with a 6-1 win. The girls were feeling confident and excited about the rest of the weekend. The girls really meshed as a team this weekend and had each others back on the ice. It was wonderful to see all our first year girls fully engaging in the play and fighting for the puck. Saturday came and the third game was underway against B.A.D Blazers. This was an intense, but a great game to watch. Some girls provided a strong defensive play, while others worked hard to control the play with the puck. Our Lady Rangers came back from being down by two goals to finish with a 5-3 win. Finally, our fourth game was played against Niagara Falls Rapids and the game ended with an amazing 9-0 win. Our Lady Rangers were ecstatic to find out that they made it to the semifinals. They were playing B.A.D Blazers for the second time at 7:30 a.m. Our Lady Rangers Girls have a history of making it to the semi-finals and then being beat out. This weekend all the Coaches, parents and our girls said, “This time we are going to break this curse and win this tournament”.
5:00 a.m came very early on Sunday and nothing could have prepared us for the drive we were all about to endure. It was dark and visibility was frightening because you couldn’t see a foot in front of you with the snow blowing. By the time the team arrived at the arena and we all looked around at one another, words didn’t have to be spoken. We knew what each other was thinking and feeling because we all just experienced the same crazy stormy drive. Nerves were shot and our adrenaline was pumping! It was game time soon and we knew we had to turn these nerves into positive energy for our girls. Just as the song goes, the girls were ready to win, win, win no matter what! They played exceptionally well and successfully broke the semifinal curse! The game ended with a 5-2 win against B.A.D Blazers. It was official … we were off to the Finals at 3:00 p.m.and were playing against the home team Woodstock Wildcats. Hearts were pumping and the crowd was going wild, just waiting for the puck to drop. First goal was scored 7:15 minutes into the game. The second goal at 4:21 was unassisted and within minutes a third goal. We were 3-0 at the beginning of second period and this continued the whole game until the final buzzer rang. The Kitchener cheering section were jumping up with excitement, our girls just won the Championship with a phenomenal 7-0 score! What a thrill it was to watch all their faces beaming with pride, just waiting to go and receive their gold medal! Congratulations Lady Rangers Red for your great teamwork! You played your hearts out and you brought home the Gold!