The Kitchener Lady Rangers came away with Intermediate A gold at this past weekend's Kitchener Fallfest tournament, upending their arch-rivals from Guelph 1-0 in the championship game. Backed by spectacular goaltending, sound team defense, tenacious penalty killing and timely scoring, the Lady Rangers went undefeated in the tournament, while yielding only two goals and scoring 16 in six games.
In the first game of the round-robin, on Friday night, Kitchener withstood a 5-on-3 shorthanded situation to easily defeat
Brampton. Although the score was only
2-0, the Lady Rangers held a 25-7 edge in shots over the
Canadettes.
Caitlan Krasinski and
Sophie Schmidt scored for the winners,
Ashley Armstrong,
Megan Thring and
Tori Waite added assists, and
Alexa Fisher posted the shutout.
On Saturday morning, the Lady Rangers held off the pack of
Lady Wolves from
Sudbury for a
3-1 victory on two goals from Armstrong and one from
Hunter Lee; Thring assisted on all three goals, while Lee and Waite each added a helper. Once again, Kitchener took the bulk of the penalties, but still managed a 31-15 advantage in shots on goal.
Kitchener clinched first place in their pool with a
3-0 win over
St. Catharines in the final game of the round-robin. The Lady Rangers were outshot for the first time in the tournament, albeit only 13-12, by the
Brock Badgers, who have eliminated Kitchener from this tournament in three of the past four seasons. Thring,
Olivia Bolender and Krasinski scored for the Lady Rangers,
Megan Chapman with two, Armstrong, Waite,
Clara Lochner and Krasinski contributed assists, while Fisher posted her second shutout of the tournament.
In the quarter-final game, on Saturday evening at the Auditorium, the Lady Rangers downed the
Hurricanes 3-0, before a crowd that rivalled an OHL Rangers game. Kitchener received only one minor penalty in the game and outshot
Mississauga 27-14.
Taya Beacom recorded the shutout, Krasinski, Armstrong and Schmidt scored, and
Alyssa Eckert,
Nicole Crosthwaite,
Caitlyn Dias, Chapman and Schmidt added assists.
The semi-final match on Sunday morning pitted the
Peterborough Ice Kats, second place in the East Division of the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League, against the Lady Rangers, who occupy second place in the West. In a penalty-filled game, Kitchener prevailed
4-1 over Peterborough, who played with a very short bench. The Lady Rangers, again killing off a long 5-on-3 disadvantage, built up a four-goal lead through two periods, but were outshot 10-1 in the third and 20-12 overall. Lee, Krasinski, Armstrong and
Hannah Aitchison scored the goals, while Krasinski with two, Eckert, Chapman, Crosthwaite, Thring, Lochner,
Keegan Camp and
Gracen Mahoney provided helpers, to set the stage for the final.
The championship match, played on Sunday afternoon at Kinsmen Arena, pitted the Lady Rangers against the
Guelph Jr. Gryphons, who handed Kitchener its only loss of the regular season in their last head-to-head meeting. The game was a close-checking battle and remained scoreless through two periods, despite the Lady Rangers having to kill a full two-minute 5-on-3 late in the second. Finally, with just over three minutes left in regulation, Schmidt scored the game's only goal on an assist from Thring. Beacom stopped 15 shots to earn the shutout, as Kitchener was again outshot, 15-12, but won
1-0.
