Submitted by Rob Duncan. The Saugeen Maitland Midget AA Lightning capped off a very successful season this past weekend, winning a bronze medal at the OWHA Provincial Championships, held this year in Ottawa to coincide with the Womens World Championships. The Bolts started the round robin portion of the tournament on Thursday with a 3-1 win over the Barrie Sharks. Captain Kelly Gribbons got things started depositing one in the back of the net with assists going to Harley Westman and Tori Terpstra. Ashlee Lawrence then scored the first of her two goals with the lone assist awarded to Maddie Duncan. Miranda Lantz and Dawn Pletsch both assisted on Lawrence`s second insurance marker.
The Lightning then faced the rival Bluewater Hawks and fell by a 2-1 score with two late tallies from the Hawks. The Lighting had held a 1-0 lead formost of the game on a goal from Kailyn Soers with assists from Jamie Simpson and Pletsch. The loss to Bluewater meant the Lightning needed a win over the Etobicoke Dolphins to make it on to the tournament playoff round. The Bolts came through with a 2-0 shut-out of the Dolphins. Soers scored the first goal on a blast from the point with assists from defence partner Jordyn Sholdice and Gribbons. Lantz iced it late with an empty netter. Shea Tiley was solid in net, stopping all Dolphin shots for the donut.
Finishing second in their pool meant the Lightning needed play in
an
additional qualifying game on Saturday afternoon against the
Brampton
Canadettes. The game was scoreless after regulation and needed
overtime to
determine the winner. Tori Terpstra came through early in the
first
overtime period breaking in from the right hand boards and beating
the
Brampton tender upstairs to secure the 1-0 win. Gribbons and
Duncan
assisted on the play. The win over Brampton secured a
quarter-final
match-up with long-time nemesis, the Whitby Wolves. Gribbons
again opened
the scoring for the Bolts with assists from Westman and Duncan,
but the
Wolves tied it up in the 3rd period with a power play marker. Once
again
the game remained tied after 3 periods and required extra time to
determine
a winner. Four periods of overtime later, the game was still
knotted at
ones with both teams running on fumes. Early in the 4th overtime,
Lawrence
stuffed one in the net on a wrap-around giving the Bolts the win and
a
semi-final berth.
Sunday morning in the semi-finals, the
Lightning faced last year's
champions, the Thunder Bay Queens. Speculation
was that the Bolts would not
have much left in the tank after playing seven
periods of hockey, late into
the previous night. The Queens scored two early
goals, but the Lightning
added one of their own with Cassidy Colhoun scoring
one of her typical
workman goals on a rebound from line-mates Courtney
Surridge and Lexi Smith.
The Lightning threatened to tie the game late, but
could not score the
equalizer even with their tender pulled for an extra
attacker. The
semi-final loss put the Bolts into the bronze medal game
Sunday afternoon
against the Nepean Wildcats, their 7th game of the weekend.
Odds-makers
would have counted the Lightning out, after playing the
equivalent of 4
games inside of 24 hours. However, the Bolts gutted out a
2-1 victory to
claim the bronze medal and the first OWHA Provincial banner in
the history
of Saugeen Maitland Midget AA Lightning hockey. Terpstra opened
the scoring
for Saugeen Maitland on a nice set-up from Gribbons and Sarah
Biesenthal.
Surridge then tipped in a Simpson point shot mid-way through the
3rd period
with the second assist going to Smith. Goaltender Morgan Baker
stood on her
head, getting peppered with more shots as the game progressed as
fatigue set
in for the Bolts. The only Nepean goal game on a power play late
with their
goaltender pulled for a 6 on 4 advantage.
Congratulations Lightning. See you next fall, tryouts start
next weekend.
For try-out schedule, see <
http://www.saugeenmaitlandlightning.com>
www.saugeenmaitlandlightning.com.