An Exciting Finish for the Kitchener Lady Rangers Intermediate A Team, News, Intermediate - OWHA #2746, 2017-2018, A (Kitchener Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2017-2018 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Mar 27, 2018 | Jon Fleming | 822 views
An Exciting Finish for the Kitchener Lady Rangers Intermediate A Team
The end to the season turned out to be an exciting one for the Intermediate A team.  We had a very strong regular season and finished first overall in the West division, earning a bye to the second round of Lower Lakes Playoffs.  We met Guelph in the next round where they pushed us to a game 3 must win and then win in overtime situation.  The girls were back in form and scored a late third period goal to win in regulation 2-1.  The series was tied in points and we went into sudden death overtime to decide the ultimate winner.  We dominated play and Ashley Armstrong scored the winner about 4 minutes into overtime to secure our place in the final four for Championship weekend.

Next came Provincials where we were favoured to medal this year.  Unfortunately, we lost our first game to Durham West 3-1 despite out-shooting our opposition by a wide margin. Next was Saugeen who have an excellent tournament team.  We needed to beat them to maintain our chances of advancing and with 5 seconds left in the third and our goalie pulled, we scored the goal for the 1-0 win.  Our next opponent was North York who we easily beat 8-0.  Even with a 2-1 record though, it wasn't enough and we were eliminated on plus-minus.  

This past weekend, we were focused for the Lower Lakes Championship.  Our first opponent was Whitby, the East division champions.  We dominated play and beat them 2-1.  Next was our division rival, St. Catharines and we played a very exciting game to a 1-0 victory.  We played Peterborough the next morning and beat them in a good game 3-1.  We were the only team to go 3-0 through the round robin and we were up against St. Catharines in the gold medal game.  Kristen Straus opened the scoring in the first period and we were dominating play going into the second.  St. Catharines responded in the second with two goals to go ahead.  We regrouped in the third and had lots of chances but in the dying seconds with us pressing 6 on 5 we couldn't tie things up as we had done several times in the season.  Congratulations to St. Catharines for a hard fought win and gold medal.

Overall, we have had many successes this season and the players, team staff and our loyal fans have had a blast.  Our 41-13-3 record is something that we can all be proud of along with tournament gold and bronze medals and a league championship gold medal and final four sliver medal.  

I would like to acknowledge the work put in by my incredible staff, Ted Martin, Darlene Dobie, Katie Simons and Paige Riley and recognize the great stats work done by Ron Dahmann and also to our team photographer Sue Kolundzic.  Sue's photos are unbelievable if you get a chance to check out her work.

Lastly to the players, thanks for all of the great effort and belief you exhibited all season.  In the end it's the fun and the memories that are worth the most.

Jon