09-10 Bantam Girls - BANTAM GIRLS WIN SILVER MEDAL @ BARRIE SHARKS TOURNAMENT
Submitted By
Paul Hincks on Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Bantam girls travelled to Barrie this past weekend to play in the 18th Annual Barrie Sharkfest Girls Tournament.
The girls opened round robin play @ 1:15pm Friday afternoon against the Clearview Ice Cats. Full of excitement and a sense of purpose the girls out played their opponents from the first drop of the puck to the last whistle, earning themselves a 4-0 win. The girls scored a goal roughly every 7 minutes as all four goals resulted from a heavy forecheck and an aggressive goal mouth presence. Langdon got things started @ 3:30 of the 1st as she banged home a rebound assisted by Yake and Cowen. Yake and Length hooked up again @ 6:13 of the 2nd as Yake stuffed home a Langdon rebound. Linemate Rawn, while on a powerplay, scored a minute into the 3rd as she beat the Ice Cat goalie topshelf gloveside. To close out the scoring, with 3 min. remaining in the game, Turnbull banged home a rebound off of a Glerum point shot, sealing the deal.
Game two for the girls was against the Carleton Place Cyclones. After a six hour wait between games and playing their second of the day both teams played a slower pace game. Nonetheless the girls outplayed their opponents, even while being shorthanded for close to a period, but were unable to capitalize on their chances and had to settle for a scoreless draw.
Game three was Sat. @ 2:15pm and saw the girls play the home town Barrie Sharks. In order to keep their playoff berth alive and in their own hands the girls knew they had to win. They came out fast and applied constant pressure throughout the whole game resulting in two 1st period goals. The first came @ 1:48 as Lark jammed home a loose puck at the goal mouth from Bults and Turnbull. The second goal came with 8 seconds on the clock as Turnbull won a clean faceoff back to pointman Glerum who delivered a low blast that was beautifully tip by Lark, potting her and the teams second goal of the game. That was all the girls needed as they skated to a 2-0 win and a berth in the semi-finals v.s. league rivals The Woolwich Wildcats @ 8:30 Sunday morning.
Thirty seconds into the Semi-final game the girls lost teammate Rawn after she crashed heavily into the end boards after an end to end rush.(Luckily Rawn was not seriously hurt and was able to return for the finals).All the girls responded with the two remaining centers Turnbull and Culp gobbling up the extra ice time as they were rotated through the teams 3 sets of wingers. The girls pressured hard and scored 3 unanswered goals in the 1st period. At 6:13 Defenceman Cowen prevented a Woolwich breakout attempt and passed the loose puck across to her "D" partner McMullen who unleashed a beautiful wrist shot from just inside the blueline beating the WildCat goalie, scoring the first goal of the game as well as McMullens first goal of the Year. WAY TO GO McMullen!!. Just over a minute later Culp took a breakout pass from Turnbull and at the offensive blueline put a hard shot on net and followed the play beating the other defenders to stuff home the juicy rebound left by the Woolwich goalie. Four minutes later @ 1:28 of the 1st period Culp was busy again with a nice pass to Bults who took a hard shot @ goal where Lark was ready to bang home the rebound. A scoreless second period was followed by a flurry of goals in the 3rd. Unfortunately @ 7:20 Woolwich scored their first and only goal breaking goalie Officer's streak of 120 minutes of shutout hockey. Feeling the momentum swinging back to Woolwich the girls responded under a minute later when Lark took a Cowen rebound and faded to the high slot and fired a hard wrist shot beating the Wildcat goalie high glove side. A pretty goal indeed. To round out the scoring Langdon stuffed home a Turnbull rebound concluding am excellent game played by all the girls and a 5-1 win.
In the Championship game the girls faced the North Simcoe Capitals, a team from the Midland/Penatang area and undefeated in the LLFHL Geraldine Heaney division. The girls, hoping to change that statistic came out and dominated play blasting the Capitals net for the first 3 to 4 min. but were unable to beat the Capital netminder. After 2 periods the teams remained scoreless with the Capitals having the edge in play. In the third period the Capitals blanketed the girls in a relentless forecheck and scored the game winning goal with 4 min. remaining. The Capitals continued their pressure to close the game out and hand the girls a 1-0 loss and their first ever Barrie Sharksfest Silver Medal. A disappointing end to a hard fought game and an excellent tournament.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE GIRLS ON A JOB WELL DONE AND A GREAT WEEKEND OF HOCKEY.
From the coach.