Feb 09, 2016 | Christine Beuerman | 592 views
Team Bonding at Silver Stick
This past weekend our Synders Graphics Peewee Girls traveled to Saugeen Shores to compete in Silver Stick. The girls came out of the round robin with 2 wins and a loss to send them into semi final action to end their weekend.
On Friday the team packed their bags and headed to Saugeen Shores for their first game of the tournament. We would play our first game in Triverton against a familiar tournament foe - the East Lambton Eagles. We have faced this team a couple of times before and we know it was going to be a tough game as some of their players are just a bit more aggressive than us. With the game ready to start, the girls know what they needed to do as we had a couple of players just not feeling the best. With a cheer from the crowd, the puck was dropped and game on. The Eagles would get on the board first but Taya Cornish would answer right back to even the score at 1. Erica Pletch and Emma French would earn the first assists of the tournament. With the Eagles not backing down and taking advantage of a few missed plays, they were able to add to their score by the end of the first period leading 3-1. Second period was again a tough period for our gals as we would surrender another 2 goals to them, we just didn't seem to have the spark we needed to get those Eagles off their game, Brooklyn Gethke would eventually score from a pass of the stick of Taya Cornish - way to go girls, let's keep chipping away at the score board. At the end of the second, we were still down by 3. It took all our might to fight off those Eagles but we did mange to keep them off the scoreboard during this final period. Emma French would score our third and final goal of this game to cut their lead to 2 with help from linemate Brooklyn Gethke. With the sound of the buzzer the game had ended and we took the loss 5-3, don't worry girls, we still have a couple more games left to show these other teams what Meteors power is.
After an afternoon of team bonding and relaxation, the team loaded up their vehicles and headed to Paisley for our night time header against the Keene Wolverines. We knew nothing about this team so we figured it would be an interesting game and that is exactly what it was! As warm ups were going on you could see each team eyeing up each other and trying to put the fear in them. Face off, puck drop and away we go! During the first period the play was back and fourth but with a lucky shot from the Wolverines they were able to sneak the puck pass our goalie to take the all important lead. Second period would settle nothing as we had many failed attempts on their goalie but she had luck on her side and our goalie Makayla Beuerman would stand tall and shut them down. With the final period started our high flying Meteors didn't back down and continued to dominate the play with numerous shots on their goalie, as the period continued we knew it was just a matter of time before we would finally bet their goalie and Emma French did exactly that - yes! We were finally on the board. With that, the girls lined up at centre and took off from there, we would skate that puck right down to their end and score 5 goals in less than 3 minutes. Wow, we really got their goalie off her game and those Wolverines didn't know that they had just been stuck by the Meteors! Emma French would score again with Erica Pletch adding two and Taya Cornish scoring the last goal unassisted. Maggie Price would earn an assist on our second goal. With the on slide of scoring this would end the game and the 5-1 victory for us. Never thought the last few minutes of this game would be so exciting. With the win in our pocket we would all head back to the hotel for some more "fun time" and to get ready for the next day.
Saturday would be another fun and exciting day for the girls. In the morning the team headed into Port Eglin to cheer on our team mate Emma French who was selected to represent our team to participate in the skills and drills competition along with a representative from each of the other teams in all the age divisions in Silver Stick. During the competition we also had the chance to meet and get autographs from some of the Toronto Fluries players from the Canadian Womens Hockey League and get our picture taken with the Clarkson Cup. Later that day we would all go and watch the Toronto Fluries take on the Boston Blades. It was a great game and the Fluries won 5-0. After the ice was cleaned from the CWHL game and the stands cleared out, we would take the ice for our final round robin game against the host Saugeen Shores Strom. The girls knew they needed the win in order to advance to the Semi Finals in the morning and they did that. On the big ice surface our gals skated around those Storm and scored halfway through the first period. Ava Gibbings scored with a beautiful shot from the point from a pass back from Jaimie Badley. Less than a minute after the opening goal, Taya Cornish drove the puck towards the net and scored. First period over with the good girls on top 2-0. Second period was again our period as we would add 3 more goals to increase our lead to 5. Emma French, Erica Pletch and Brooklyn Gethke would get the credit along with Nicole Simmons earning an assist. During the third period of this game Saugeen would get a couple in our net to get them on the board and cutting into our lead, Emma French, Taya Cornish and a riffled shot from Jaimie Badley would keep our win alive and seal the game. Alexa Hahn, Sydney Ryan, Emily Haefling, Emily Dearing and Maggie Phillips all played hard and had some close chances to score during this game.
With the round robin finished, we would end up in second place and earn a spot in one of the two semi final games on Sunday morning. We would be matched up against the TCDMHA Rebels who went undefected in round robin play and also hadn't allowed a goal in either. We knew we had our work cut out for us!
Semi Final Sunday was here and with a huge challenge on our hands we were ready. Right from the face off we were caught off guard with their skill and speed. We would end up losing this game 7-0 despite a few good chances to score.
With that loss we were done in the tournament but overall we had a great weekend of hockey!
Now we are getting ready to start playoffs this weekend as well as playdowns to see if we can earn our spot to go to Provinicals in April. Still lots of hockey left for our gals so come on out and cheer on our high flying mighty Meteors!