Ace Garden Centre U13 Meteor Girls capture Silver at Festival Cup Tournament Stratford
After a fun weekend of hockey, The U13 Meteor
girls took home the Silver Medal, entering the Finals undefeated after five
games.
Game one took place early Friday Morning against Twin Centre
Hericaines. Martyna Hartwig opened the scoring for the Meteors in the first
period. Hartwig potted another in the second period on a nice pass from Sophia
VanNes. The girls never looked back and added two more goals in the third, one
from Avery Wolfe, from Ella Sills and Hartwig. The other from Danica Voros assisted
by Chantelle Mergl to take the 4-0 win.
Game two was later that afternoon and with a healthy rest,
the girls were charged up to take on the B.A.D. Blazers. The girls battled hard
throughout with singles in each of the first two periods. Kinslee Horan got on
the board in the first and Ella Sills recorded the second from an end-to-end
rush. Phoebe Wood added to the Meteors lead in the third with a beauty shot. The
Blazers responded with two goals of their own to make a run for the tie, but
Leah Sills would net the final insurance goal to record the 4-2 win for the
Meteors.
In game three the Meteor girls faced off against the Upper
Maitland Mustangs early Saturday morning. The Meteors worked hard throughout
the game and were rewarded with a 2-0 victory. Goals came from Voros assisted from
Wood in the first and the second from Reina Nevin off the Hartwig faceoff win.
Game four took place in St. Marys against the Stittsville
Rockets, later Saturday. The Rockets
opened the scoring in the first period which seemed to wake up the Meteors who
responded in the second period. VanNes grabbed the first Meteor goal, assisted
by Wood. Two more goals were recorded in the second period, from Horan off a
nice pass from Voros, as well as a goal from Nevin. Nevin world round off the
4-1 victory with another goal, assisted by Hartwig.
Finishing first in their pool, earned the girls a bye and some
deserved rest before Sunday’s semifinal game. The Semi-final took place early
afternoon and with the girls rested, set out to play a strong Wallaceburg
Lakers team. Both teams were hungry for the win as they battled back-and-forth
having equal chances at both ends. Ally VanBakel had the gates to the net
locked up for her team and did her best to keep the Lakers out after 3 periods
of scoreless hockey. The fans for both teams were on edge as tensions mounted heading
into OT. Horan would get the puck to Nevin who was perfectly positioned to pot
the OT game winner to seal 1-0 victory and head to the finals.
In the Finals, the Meteors met up again with the Twin Centre
Hericaines that they played earlier in the tournament. The Hericaines were
hungry for redemption and got on the board first in the first period and then
again in the third, putting the Meteors down 2-0. The Meteors kept battling and took advantage
of a Hericaines penalty late in the third by pulling VanBakel to have a 6 on 4
advantage. Voros won the faceoff back to Ella Sills, then over to Horan who
rifled her wrist shot in the net to give the girls some more life in the game.
With VanBakel back in net and both teams having called their time-outs, The
meteors kept trying but couldn’t tie up the game, losing 2-1 in the finals.
Very strong team effort by the girls who played very well
and exhibited good attitudes and strong passing skills which have been
relentlessly practiced, and it’s showing. The girls ended the tournament with 5
wins 1 loss, 16 GF and 5 GA. VanBakel played very strong in net recording three
shutouts across the weekend. Thanks to the coaches for guiding the girls
throughout the weekend.