After a rough regular season, our girls came together and had a fabulous weekend in the Flamborough Winter Chill Tournament. Each one of our girls stepped up and showed not only their passion for the game but how hard they can play hockey. This made it a tough decision when it came time to identify the game’s MVP. The coaches decided to award the MVP to the line that worked together the most during each game.
Our first game against Mississauga was scoreless through the 1st and 2nd period even though we outshot them by a considerable margin. Finally in the 3rd period we scored 2 goals within a minute of each other and followed up with another just a few minutes after that. A forward line was awarded the game’s MVP as they all had a part in scoring the 3 goals.
With a 3-0 victory behind them the girls were pumped and ready to go on to win the next game against Flamborough just a few hours later. The game started out in a similar fashion to our first game. Even though we had a lot of shots on net we remained scoreless through the 1st and 2nd period. We took a penalty that helped save a goal to start the 3rd but Flamborough did score on the ensuing power play. The Lady Rangers responded with their own power play goal to tie the game up shortly thereafter. We then had to fight off another penalty, but were able to take the lead once we were back to even strength, to take the game and win 2-1. This time a defensive line was awarded the game’s MVP for their efforts on the go-ahead goal and their ability to keeping the puck out of our end in the dying moments of the game.
The girls came back well rested Saturday morning and won 2-1 against North Durham. Once again we peppered their goalie with a lot of shots on net. We were down 1-0 going into the 3rd period. With 5 min left we tied it up, then took the lead 2 minutes later finishing that game 2-1. Another forward line took the MVP for that game for playing a part in both the goals.
Saturday evening we faced North Durham again in the semi-final game. We fought off a penalty and scored the first and only goal of the game with just 2.5 minutes left in the 3rd. This gave us a 2nd shutout of the tournament ending that game 1-0 and clinched our place in gold medal game Sunday morning.
Our gold medal game against Georgina didn’t start out as we had hoped. They scored just a few minutes into the start of the game, but our girls didn’t give up. They fought hard and tied it up in the 2nd period, and then 3.5 minutes later we got another goal making it 2-1. Our goalie made a huge save with just 1 minute left in the 3rd. We were able to hold on to this 2-1 lead for the win and the gold medal.
These 1 goal differentials throughout each game really kept the coaches and parents on the edge of their seats the entire tournament, with some parents joking that their fit bit heart monitors are going through the roof. Even parents that couldn’t make it to the games were right there with us waiting and responding to all the BBM updates of goals, penalties and time remaining in each period. There was a lot of back and forth play in each game and a lot of shots on the opponents net, but the girls continued to fight hard and pulled through undefeated in all 5 games to end up winning gold.
Such a great tournament all weekend long and well needed momentum for the girls going in to Playdowns!!
BJ Adams