Feb 15, 2017 | Andrew Medhurst | 633 views
Novice Girls Begin Busy Postseason
Over the past weekend, the Perth County Chrysler Dodge Caravan Kids Novice girls kicked off their postseason. On Saturday the Meteors hosted the Stratford Aces in their first game of their OWHA provincial qualifying round robin. Sunday saw them begin their WOGHL playoffs as they played host to the Chatham Outlaws. The girls continued their strong play from the previous weekend, when they returned home as SilverStick Champs.
On Saturday the Meteors would square off against their highway 8 neighbours, the Stratford Aces. This was their first of six games in the OWHA playoff, which will see the team with the most points in the round robin move onto the provincial championships later on this season. The other teams competing in this pool include the Huron Heat and South Huron Sabres B teams.
Against Saturday the Meteors started strong and got on the board first. At the end of a very hard working shift, Kara Rolph opened to scoring, as Heather Ogilvie and Danielle Harmer drew assists. The teams would battle back and forth for the remainder of the period and the strong goaltending of Grace Kipfer would keep the Aces off the scoreboard. The second would see much of the same battle. However, in the dying seconds an Ace player would breakaway and get a hard shot off which Kipfer would make the spectacular initial save. The rebound would find its way on to the stick of a trailing Ace player who was able to slide it in with just 3 seconds remaining in the period. The back and forth battle would continue in the third. Kipfer would again stand tall for the Meteors highlighted by a helmet save off a very hard shot. The three girl defensive unit of Ogilvie, Jessie Horan and Rylee Kipfer would work hard all game. When the dust all settled, the game would end in a 1-1 tie, very suiting for how hard both teams worked.
Sunday would bring one of the Meteors league rivals to town, the Chatham Outlaws. These teams have had several close battles already this season. After coach Rolph scouted the Outlaws warmup, he had his game plan drawn up, and the girls would execute it to perfection. The Meteors came out flying in the first, and again the teams battled, with each having great chances. The end of the first would see no scoring. It did not take long into the second for the Meteors to break the deadlock. Ashley McLeod, as she has done all season, found the back of the net to get the hometown crowd on it's feet. Zoey Michel and Ava Harmer would pick up assists on the goal. Later in the period, the Meteors would find themselves on a power play. Near the end of the advantage, they executed with perfection and Danielle Harmer would find a loose puck in front of the net, and send it to it's home. Jayda Houben and Camryn Medhurst would assist on the goal, as they both dug hard to win puck battles. The third period would see the Meteors concentrate on defence first, and they limited the Outlaws chances. Once again, G. Kipfer would stand tall and earn her first shutout of the postseason. Rolph jumped back to help out the defence late in the game.
It was an excellent start to what hopes to be a long playoff run. Fans are hoping the coaching staff won't need their razors for an extended period of time, they are all anticipating the return of Kent's sweet 'stache!