Jan 20, 2009 | pmilne | 952 views
2009 Orangeville Tigers Tournament Champions
Peewee Girls add another banner to their collection.
The PeeWee girls almost had another flawless weekend as they travelled to Orangeville for the 31st annual Sweethearts tournament. The first game early Friday afternoon was against Mount Brydges, whom we had played and beat in the semi-finals at the regional silver stick in November. The girls came out strong and put some pressure early on the Cougars goalie. Taylor Weber gave the locals the lead with just over three minutes into the game. This would be the score until the last few seconds in the game when Nicole Langdon fired one down the ice into the empty net as Mount Forest was killing off a penalty. The Final score 2-0.
Our next game was against Georgina Golden Hawks on Saturday morning. The coaches were telling the girls to get lots of shots on the Hawks goalie as she has only allowed three goals in their league. And she was true to form robbing our girls a few times. Our goalie, Laura Rumph was as equal to the task. With just over a minute left in the first period Weber rifled one past the Hawks goalie to take the 1-0 lead. Assists going to Tatiana Felsbourg and Taylor MacDonald. With chances at both ends of ice which were denied by both goalies, the game went back and forth. With a little over a minute left and the Hawks goalie on the bench for an extra attacker, Andrea Walsh got the puck up to Weber and she fired it into an empty net. Final score 2-0. This win meant that the girls would be playing in the semi-finals on Sunday for sure but still wanted to finish first in their pool. This meant a win or a tie against Markdale on Sunday morning in their last round robin game would put them in first.
Markdale caught our girls pretty flat on Sunday morning, something we haven't seen very much this year and hope we don't see again. They put pressure on us right from the start and scored two and a half minutes into the game. The girls battled back and got the equalizer just under two minutes later when Reagan Kaufman scored unnassisted. Markdale kept pressuring us and regained the lead with just over four minutes left in the first. They would retain this lead until Kaufman found the equalizer half way through the third period. Hats off to the girls for battling to get the tie. Let's hope we learned a lesson here. Its that extra effort that makes you winners. Not taking anything away from Markdale as they played a hard game against us.
The semi-finals were set, Mount Forest (1st Pool A) against Twin Centers (2nd Pool B) and Waterloo (1st Pool B) against Markdale (2nd Pool A).
After a quick breakfast, the team was at the arena ready for their tilt against Twin Centers. The coaches were telling the girls prior to the game" it is the little battles that they have to win". The girls came out flying and put lots of pressure on right from the start. Less than two minutes in Weber found the back of the net from Langdon. The girls kept pressuring but couldn't get the shots to the net. Twin Centers started to turn the tables and put the pressure on us but with Rumphy back to the form we know and need and some good defensive play in our own end, they were denied on any chances. With four minutes left in the second Kyelle Byne found Deanna Hieber standing in front of the Herricanes net (with her stick on the ice as the coaches have been telling the girls all year) and buried our second goal for a 2-0 lead. Weber picked up an assist on the goal also. Twin Centers would pull their goalie for an extra attacker and put the pressure on us. But Kaufman and Walsh got the puck up to Ally Spielmacher who skated it in for the empty net for a 3-0 lead with 32 seconds left. The Herricanes kept their goalie out and with time running out Weber scored again from MacDonald and Byne. The final score was 4-0 and put the girls into the finals against either Waterloo or Markdale. Most of us hung around to see who we would be playing in the finals. It would end up being Waterloo with a 2-0 victory.
With it being both teams 3rd game of the day and 5th of the weekend, conditioning would become a big factor in the game. We had a couple of girls feeling under the weather for this game also but being the troopers they are got their game faces on and went out there. Again the coaches were telling the girls to win the battles and they would win the game. Our conditioning showed as we got the fast jump on Waterloo and put lots of pressure on early. Just over two minutes in Weber broke in all alone and gave us the much needed 1-0 lead. We continued to put the pressure on and had lots of close calls, just missing the corners 5 or 6 times. Rumphy was true to form in this contest stopping a few point blank chances for Waterloo. Just over two minutes into the third Kaufman banked the puck off the boards to Sara Contini who carried it in and put it just under the cross bar for the 2-0 lead. What a shot and the coaches hope to see more of this down the road. Less than a minute later with lots of pressure in the Waterloo end Weber and Walsh found Spielly in front of the net for the 3-0 lead. Rumphy made some key saves late in the game and was 22 seconds away from her fourth shut-out of the tournament. However Waterloo stripped the puck off one of our girls and went in and scored to make the final 3-1. Rumphy got the MVP for the game and Taylor Weber got MVP for the tournament.
Way to Go girls. Working hard all weekend were Our goalie Laura Rumph, Defencemen- Maryssa Eccles,Raegan Elliot,Taylor MacDonald,Nicole Ross and Nicole Langdon, Forwards- Taylor Weber, Sara Contini, Ally Spielmacher, Reagan Kaufman, Andrea Walsh, Deanna Hieber, Kyelle Byne and Tatiana Felsbourg. Coaching Staff of Dale Eccles, Scott Weber, Randy Eurig, Christine Shaw, and Cheryl Walsh.
This is the third tournament the girls have been in this season and have come away with the gold each time. Lets hope our streak continues at the International Silver Stick Finals in Sarnia from Feb. 6th-8th.