The Saugeen Maitland
Midget AA Lightning travelled to Toronto
this past weekend to participate in the Toronto Aeros Midget Classic
tournament. The Bolts’ first game was
against last season’s provincial champions North Bay Ice Boltz. The fast-paced, end-to-end affair was perhaps
the Lightning’s best game of the weekend, ending in a 1-1 draw. Cassidy Colhoun chipped one in between the Ice
Boltz goaltender’s wickets on a great individual effort. Rebecca Ropp stopped all but one of North Bay’s shots for a
great effort in the Lightning net.
The Lightning second game was against one of two Midget AA teams from North York. The game was a mostly one-sided affair as indicated by the 7-0 final score. Neve VanPelt scored a hat-trick with singles going to Tori Terpstra, Avery Reeves, Lexi Smith and call-up player Sam Pruden. Assists were awarded to Jamie Simpson (2), Mel Nolan (2), Nikki Zabel, Smith and Pruden. Morgan Baker turned aside all North York Storm shots to earn the shut-out.
After nearly 24 hours off, the Lightning played their 3rd game against the Barrie Sharks. The Bolts carried the play for the majority of the game could not get one by the Shark goaltender. Ashlee Lawrence finally broke the scoreless tie with a goal in the final 3 minutes of the game to give the bolts a 1-0 win. Maddie Duncan and Zabel assisted on the play. Ropp earned the shut-out in net. The Lightning again found their scoring touch in their 4th game against the other North York team. Lawrence and Nolan let the way with 2 goals each with singles going to Colhoun, VanPelt and Terpstra. Jordyn Sholdice, Kailyn Soers, Sarah Biesenthal, Smith, Lawrence, Terpstra and Colhoun all earned assists in the game. Final score 7-3.
With 7 points in the round robin portion of the tournament, the Lightning earned first place in their pool, but meant they had to face top-ranked Stoney Creek in the quarter-finals on Sunday morning. The bolts fell behind early and could never really get their legs moving and fell 2-0 to the eventual tournament champion Sabres. The Lightning open their regular season next Saturday against Bluewater at 6pm in Wingham. Follow the Lightning at www.saugeenmaitlandlightning.com.