Feb 06, 2012 | mdodds | 1601 views
The Little Team Who Could
Going into the International Silverstick Tournament this weekend, our girls were clearly the underdogs. Our competition was at or near the top of their respective leagues and we had struggled to tie some of our B competitors over the past few weeks. Our only BB experience had come in an exhibition loss to Ancaster. The girls faced a real challenge!
Our first game was against the North York Storm, who have a 13-4-5 record in regular season. Our girls came out shooting and scored midway through the first period. The action was back and forth, with a couple of bounces going our way! We outskated a strong North York team and came away with a 4-0 win. It was a good team effort, with Emma Fidler playing a strong defensive game. The 'triple K' line of Kayla Heckman,'Kayla Grace and 'Kenzee VanHooydonk were also flying, with Makayla Grace winning the MVP for the game. Makayla played a smart two way game, making some amazing passes to clear the zone and set up her line mates!
On Saturday morning we met our toughest opponent of the year, the B.A.D. Girls. Undaunted by the highly touted team from Belmont, we came out flying and scored the first two goals. The much higher tempo of BB and the 12-12-12 format of the tournament took its toll on our much smaller, 10 player squad. The B.A.D Girls scored three unanswered goals in the last half of the game. All four of our wingers worked very hard against the very persistent competition, never giving up. Megan Campbell showed great speed on defense, while Mackenzee VanHooydonk and Jessica Hartley played exceptionally well in the offensive end, with Jessica winning the MVP of the game. Jess never stopped moving, taking on kids twice her size and winning battles along the boards, behind the net and in the goal mouth.
Saturday afternoon was a much different game, seeing our girls dominate in a 7-1 victory over West Durham Lightning. As is often the case, our scoring was shared evenly across the team. Natasha Chisholm played an especially strong game on defense, holding the line to keep our offensive drives alive and showing great persistence in back checking, never giving the opposition an inch. Centre, Cassidy Heckman played very well, passing, rushing and scoring, overcoming a pre game headache to lead the team to victory and winning the MVP.
Our semi final took place in Frankford against the North York team who placed third. Intent on avenging their earlier loss, the Storm jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. Hailey Pfaff, our goalie, who was also fighting a stomach bug, came up with some key saves early on, allowing the team to settle in and get back in the game. Hanna Lingier then went to work in her office at the side of the net, scoring 4 goals while the defense effectively shut down North York's star player. Hanna was our very obvious MVP in a 5-2 semi final victory.
Sunday at 2pm, our team had the chance to prove to themselves that they were true BB contenders, competing in the final against a very confident, very talented B.A.D. Girls team. Our girls opened the scoring, but the B.A.D. Girls soon answered with the equalizer. Although the girls struggled at times against the strong skating opposition, our defense core, made up of Emma Fidler, Megan Campbell, Catherine Dodds and Natasha Chisholm, kept the Blazers to the outside, letting few shots through. Even though the B.A.D. Girls' full extra forward line gave them extra jump in the third and our girls looked tired at times, we never gave up, getting several quality shots on a very sharp Belmont goalie. After several heart stopping chances for both teams, our girls scored with 1:49 left in the third. With the B.A.D. Girls calling a time out, our coaching staff was able to settle our girls down enough to play a smart defensive game for a very long one minute and forty-nine seconds!! Much to the surprise of the Belmont fans and the tournament organizers, we won the game, becoming the Atom BB Silverstick Champions!! Kayla Heckman was on fire throughout the game, making some amazing passing and rushing plays. Catherine Dodds who played another strong defensive game, making several rushes through the entire Blazer team, was named the game's MVP.
Thanks to the coaching staff for leading our girls to victory against the odds! Your calm and decisive direction throughout the year has given our girls the confidence to succeed!
Congratulations girls!! You went from the underdog B team, to BB champions! Bring on Provincial Playdowns!