Submitted by Rob Duncan.The Saugeen Maitland Midget AA Lightning travelled to Sarnia to participate in the International Silver Stick Tournament this past weekend and made it to the semi-final round before bowing out to eventual tournament champions, the Haldimand River-Cats. The Lightning started the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 3-3 draw against the same Haldimand team. Courtney Surridge opened the scoring, re-directing a Cassidy Colhoun centering pass into the net. Miranda Lantz then scored a beauty on the power play with assists going to defencemen Jordyn Sholdice and Maddie Duncan. Duncan then potted one of her own, a clapper from the point with assists from Kelly Gribbons and Kailyn Soers.
The Bolts' second game was a 1-0 shut-out of the Leaside Wildcats that
started late Friday night and finished early Saturday morning. The hard-working line of Ashlee Lawrence, Dawn Pletsch and Lantz
combined on
the lone goal with Lawrence finishing the play off a rebound. Shea Tiley was
solid again, stopping all Wildcat shots for the shut-out
in net.
Needing a win to finish first in their pool, the
Lightning found their
scoring touch, downing the Vaughan Flames 4-0.
Gribbons opened the scoring,
depositing her own rebound into the back of the
Flames net. Lexi Smith then
scored from line-mates Colhoun and Surridge.
Tori Terpstra added one with
assists going to Sarah Biesenthal and Gribbons.
Surridge closed out the
scoring late in the game, putting one in off the
backhand with helpers from
Lawrence and Pletsch. Morgan Baker picked up the
do-nut, holding the fort
in the Lightning net.
Saturday night
the Bolts won their 1/4 final game over the Burlington
Barracudas 2-1. The
score could have been lop-sided if not for the efforts
of the Burlington
net-minder as most of the play was in the Barracuda zone.
Duncan fired one in
from the point through a Colhoun screen with Gribbons
picking up the second
assist. Harley Westman then picked up a rebound off a
Jamie Simpson point
shot and stuck it in the back of the net. Terpstra also
earned an
assist.
Sunday the Lightning again faced the Haldimand River
Cats in a semi-final
rematch of their tournament opening draw. The Bolts
were down a goal early,
but battled back on a couple of occasions to keep the
game close. With the
goalie pulled in the last minute, the Lightning had the
River Cats trapped
in their end and had chances, but could not score the
equalizer. Final
score Haldimand 3, Lightning 2. The two Lightning goals
were scored by
Lantz from Smith and Surridge from Colhoun and Duncan. The
Lightning will
open their Lower Lakes play-offs the next Saturday with a
double-header in
Teeswater against Windsor. For schedule and results see the
Lightning
web-site,
www.saugeenmaitlandlightning.com.