Congratulations to the Tru Country & Garden Peewee B Girls on a fabulous start to our annual Mitchell Tournament, going undefeated in round robin play and earning the spot in the B Final game on Sunday!
Our gals started the tournament on Thursday night against the Waterloo Ravens. Right from the start of the game our girls were keen and ready to play. We have been in a bit of a slump lately so no better time to turn things around then in our own tournament and we did just. Right off the faceoff we took puck control and started the game. With plays going end to end and time almost out in the first period, Alexa Hahn would tap that disk in by the Raven net minder to score. Arianna Catalan and Taya Cornish would earn the assists. Second period would start and with the momentum in our favor, we would add 3 more goals to our lead. With in the first minute of the period, Brooklyn Gethke of the stick of team mates Erica Pletsch and Emma French would increase our lead. As play continued to be in their end, Erica Pletsch would find the back of the net from the passing of Brooklyn Gethke and Taya Cornish. As we faced off again and a few more minutes to pass, Emma French scored to add her name to the score sheet from the point shot of Ava Gibbings and the pass from Brooklyn Gethke. Wow, what a period, I don't think Waterloo knew what had hit them. Their goalie was certainly seeing a Meteor shower of shots and our goalie Makayla Beuerman didn't seem to busy as play just didn't get to our end to often. With the final 15 minutes left in the game and the good girls leading 4-0, we felt pretty confident that the win was ours. In the final period of play, Brooklyn Gethke would score the final 2 goals of the night and earning the hat trick, awesome! Taya Cornish and Nicole Simmons were her helpers this time. Waterloo tried to score on our goalie Makayla Beuerman in the final minutes but she was a rock and would get the shutout and a huge team win 6-0. Great game girls! Let's take this momentum into our final 2 round robin games tomorrow (Friday).
Friday morning and a day off school the girls were ready once again to battle for the win. This time our challenger would be the Kincardine Kinucks, a fellow league opponent. With the puck dropped, the game was on and this was going to be a good game as both teams were very aggressive and wanted the win. With just a minute left in the opening period, Emma French would score with help from Erica Pletsch and Brooklyn Gethke. Good, we made it on the board first! Second period started and Kincardine didn't take long to tie the game, wow, what a game so far. This would be all the scoring in the second period despite numerous chances for both teams. The final period was here and this barn burner could go either way. We would continue to battle for our position and Erica Pletsch would get that little black disk in the net to give us the narrow lead 2-1. Keep it going girls, there is still plenty of time left. As time winding down, Emma French scored unassisted to increase our lead 3-1. This is a nail bitter, with a close chance in our end and a quick blow of the whistle, Kincardine would be denied the goal. Whew, that was a close one! Kincardine was determined to cut into our lead and with just over a minute left in the game they would score to make it 3 for us and 2 for them. With an empty net at their end and a furry of players on the ice, we would hold them off the scoreboard in the last few seconds of the game to take the victory 3-2. What a game! The girls would earn a bit of a break before taking on the Sarina Lady Sting at 3pm.
The time had come for our final round robin game. The ice was cleaned and fans were in the stands to cheer on our girls. Sarnia started the game quick and took control of the play. I think our girls may have been a bit tried but they seemed to get a fire going as time went on. Sarina would score first but with that, our girls dug down deep and started dominating the play and the control of the puck. With that aggressive play and Alexa Hahn right in front of the net, she was able to tip the pass of Arianna Catalan into the net to tie up the game. Nice play girls! As play continued and some excellent shots from the point, Ava Gibbings would fire one in and caught the goalie off to net it. Yes, nice shot! We were up 2-1 after the opening period. With many battles in front of the Sting's net minder, Arianna Catalan would net one from the play making of Erica Pletsch. Way to go, nothing is stopping us now! As Sarina attempted shots on our net, Makayla Beuerman was there to answer them with blocks and saves to keep the score 3-1 with the final period to come. The third period was played very similar to the previous period with many good chances to score and lots of puck turn around in centre ice. With the scoreboard coming to the end of this final period and an empty net in Sarnia's end, Brooklyn Gethke would shoot the puck from just over the red line at the net to score from the pass off Brett Gethke. This would end our round robin play with another win 4-1.
Great playing so far this weekend! With their record of 3 wins and 0 losses, this would earn us our spot in the "B" Final on Sunday. Congratulations girls!
We now have to wait to find out which one of the three teams - Waterloo, Kincardine or Sarnia will be our opponent in our quest for the championship. Which ever team it will be we know as fans we will be in to see an intense and exciting game of hockey!
So if your looking for something to do on Sunday, come on out to the Mitchell Arena for 1:15pm to see and cheer on our Tru Country & Garden PeeWee Girls battling for the Championship title.
Let's go girls!