Jan 25, 2010 | phincks | 819 views
BANTAM GIRLS WIN GOLD IN CAMBRIDGE TOURNAMENT
The Bantam girls marched into Cambridge on Jan. 15 to play in the Roadrunners 16th Annual Girls Hockey Tournament @ the "BB" level.
Full of confidence after playing competitively against Midget C girls the weekend before in the Mount Forest Classic Girls Tournament the girls faced the Burlington Baracudas. The ladies dominated play from start to finish but were snake bitten and had to settle for a scoreless tie. Saturday morning rolled around and the ladies faced the Belmont Blazers in the old Preston arena. Again, the girls dominated the play, and for the first time this year all the team scoring came from the "Point". Justine Glerum got things started @ 8:15 of the 2nd period after taking a pass from Jesse Turnbull and beating the goalie stick side with a low hard wristshot. A few minutes later Glerum almost potted another as her wrister from the blueline skimmed across the crossbar. Nice Shot Justine!
Near the end of the period after several minutes of heavy pressure by a relentless forecheck and defensive pinching the Belmont goalie froze the puck for a face-off to her left. Center Kellie Rawn won a clean draw, as she so often does, back to Brianne McMullen @ the point who stepped into a one-timer slapshot that rang off the post and deflected off the back of the goalies pad as she was sliding across the crease and into the net. Great Shot Brianne !!! That closed out the scoring for a 2-0 victory.
After a team lunch, the girls played their final round robin game against the host team, the Cambridge Roadrunners, in of all places, The MALL. A truly unique and hip experience. Sorry ladies that there were no Sales on @ WEST 49. A heated rivalry from a couple of years ago and the necessity for Cambridge to win the game, the girls knew they were in for a battle. A battle it was. Again the girls came out strong and carried the play only to watch chance after chance slip away until 5:23 of the 2nd period when intense pressure created a crease/slot scrum that saw Kellie Rawn gobble up a loose puck and unleash a wicked backhand shot that blew past the goalies left shoulder and hit the underside of the crossbar and drop into the net. 1-0 Mount Forest. Nice Shot Kellie !!!. Assists on the goal went to Glerum & Langdon. Cambridge did not give up and started pressing causing the girls to run into some penalty trouble, giving the Roadrunners a 2 man advantage at one point. The girls killed off the 5 on 3 but with time expiring on the second penalty, Cambridge capitalized on their extra man and stuffed home a rebound @ 10:43 of the 3rd period, tying the score 1-1. The remaining 10 minutes of the game saw good action at both ends with a final push by Cambridge as they pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Goalie Tamara Officer made some big saves as the girls survived the onslaught ending the game in a 1-1 tie. The girls 1-0-2 record was enough to earn them 2nd place and a birth in the finals on Sunday Morning against Burlington.
Unbeknownst to the girls the Cambridge Tournament committee had something special in store for all the finalists as the girls were treated like the pro's. The lights dimmed, a spotlight shone down into the far corner of the rink, a fog machine was started and the crowd fell silent as each player jumped out onto the ice as their names were announced over the P.A. system. What a thrill for the girls!. After all the player introductions everyone in attendance stood for the singing of " O CANADA". What a great way to start a championship game. Hats off to the folks in Cambridge for a job well done.
Burlington was ready for this rematch and came out harder with some early pressure, but the girls answered back and out chanced their opponent but had to settle for a scoreless tie after the 1st period. The girls continued their pressure until penalty troubled settled in, spending 60% of the second period in the box. Killing off these penalties started to shift the momentum in favour of Burlington as they were able to take advantage of their extra attacker and take the edge in play. The girls killed off a brief 5 on 3 situation and found themselves with a 1 min. powerplay. The girls took advantage of the extra attacker as Nicole Langdon took a nice pass from Kellie Rawn in the high slot. After placing a shot on net Langdon followed the play to the net looking for her own rebound, where she rammed home the girls first goal, while on her stomach after being tripped. Great Second Effort Nicole !!!!. The girls hung onto their 1 goal lead until 5:58 of the 3rd period when Burlington jammed home a loose puck after a goal mouth scrum. The Baracudas, sensing the girls were getting tired poured it on and had several great scoring chances only to be denied by Goalie Tamara Officer and with time winding down in the 3rd period Officer dove across the crease from right to left to make a Big Paddle save, a game saver for sure. Awesome Save Tamara!!!!!
Now that regulation time was over the girls faced 5min of 5 on 5 overtime, then 1min of 4 on 4 with the remainder of the game to be played 3 on 3 with line changes allowed only on the fly. The game proceeded thru the 5 on 5 & the 4 on 4 onto the 3 on 3 stage with both teams having good chances to end the deadlock, but none better then Chloe Lark's breakaway chance, which was denied by the Baracuda goalie. Good Try Chloe !!! Next Time's a Charm. At 15:48 of the 1st overtime period the girls got a break as Kellie Rawn was tripped in open ice in the neutral zone as she was making her way into the Burlington end. This meant a 4 on 3 powerplay. Megan Yake, with a fresh set of legs, was sent out as the extra attacker. Rawn won the draw straight to Yake who skated over the Burlington blueline moving from right to left using the Baracuda defensemen as a screen and placed a hard wristshot just over the right pad of an unsuspecting "Cuda" goalie into the back of the net, for the Game Winner and a 2-1 victory. NICE SHOT MEGAN !!!!!!
All the girls played excellent hockey all weekend as they showed grit and determination in every game they played and every player irregardless if they made it onto the score sheet or not should be proud of their accomplishments as everyone played extremely well this weekend.
CONGRATULATIONS LADIES ON AN EXCELLENT WEEKEND OF HOCKEY!!!!!!!
From
The Coach
P.S. Lets have fun PAINTBALLING !!!!!