Dec 11, 2011 | Howie Pruden | 823 views
Lightning drop weekend pair
Saugeen travelled to London Saturday to play the top ranked London '97's and dropped a hard fought 4-2 decision.
The Lightning visited Sarnia on Sunday and again lost a tough close fought 2-1 decision.
London and Sarnia are in the top 5 teams in Canada and the Lightning played excellent but undisciplined hockey has cost the Lightning many games this year. Saugeen leads the 40 teams in the league in penalty minutes and though we can compete with any team in the league penalty minutes continue to lose us games.
Saugeen gave up 2 goals on the first two shots of the game within the first 2 minutes. Kara Hatton pulled the Lightning to within one at the 5 minute mark on a hard shot from the slot. With 28 seconds to go in the first Amy Hepburn ripped a shot to tie up the game assisted by Jenah Van Loon.
London regained the lead in the second and with 2 men in the box Saugeen gave up another short handed marker to end the second down 4-2.
Saugeen played hard in the third but penalty trouble kept them in the box and unable to mount a comeback.
London outshot Saugeen 29-23.
Sunday Saugeen travelled to Sarnia and played an excellent game against a strong AA pretender. The score was deadlocked at 0 after one with Saugeen having many scoring chances in the first. The Sting opened the scoring on a goal mouth scramble with 2 minutes to play in the second.
With the Lightning pressing late in the game Saugeen took a penalty at the 3 minute marker and again a goal mouth scramble produced a goal for the Sting. Amy Hepburn continued her strong play and rushed between 2 defenders with our goalie out and scored a break away goal with 28 seconds to play. Saugeen won the draw and carried the puck into the Sarnia end but could not get the equalizer.
Emma Bluhm played excellent in net to keep it close and stopping a break away late in the third.Saugeen was out shot 16-13.
"The girls are playing great hockey and we are in every game against the best teams in Canada but we continue to take bad penalties and they are costing us games. Our PK is excellent but we spend too many minutes on the kill and it takes away from the offence."