Feb 03, 2014 | Vmighton | 790 views
Bantams finish regular season in 4th place
The Saugeen Maitland Lightning Bantam AA's finished off their regular season last Friday night, earning them a respectable 4th place finish in the West Division.
The Bantams played their 3rd game in as many weeks against Waterloo on Sunday January 26th, and lost a nail biter 3 - 2 to tie the season series with this rival team. SML would start the scoring with 8 minutes left in the 2nd on a shot from Jocelyn Ballantyne with Emma Swift getting the assists. Waterloo would tie it up early in the 3rd, before the boltz would re-gain the lead less than 30 seconds later. Bryanna Campbell would find the mesh, assisted by Ballantyne and Taylor Humphrey. With less than 3 minutes to go, Waterloo would tie the game, and with 25 seconds left, would take the lead and end the game with a 3 - 2 score. This would put Waterloo 1 point ahead of SML for 4th place, with the Lightning having 1 game left that was snowed out the day before.
The Bantams would travel to Kitchener for a rare Friday night tilt, and after multiple snow days, cancelled practices, and lost of exams, the girls would come out flat in the first two periods, and find themselves down a goal to a much improved Kitchener squad. The bantams came out with more energy after the flood, and managed to tie it up with 6:48 remaining in the 3rd, but couldn't get the go ahead goal and ended with a tie. The tie was enough to put the Bantams in a solid 4th place finish for regular season, meaning they would play the Waterloo Ravens who they just met 3 times in January, in the first round of the LLFHL playoff, and have home ice advantage going into this series.
Game 1 of the playoffs would be in Howick on Feb 2 vs the Raven's, and both teams came out and played hard. These teams are pretty even, and there was end to end action throughout the game. The girls battled hard, but at the 13:31 mark of the 2nd period, Waterloo would get the only goal of the game and take game one with a 1 - 0 score.
Game 2 of the series will be Friday Feb 14th at Sportsworld in Kitchener with a 7:15 start, and game 3 (if necessary) will be on Saturday, Feb 15th at 2 pm in Teeswater.
The Bantams head to Aurora for Silver Stick this weekend, and hope to see success and bring home the Gold. Congrats go out to the Midget AA team for their Gold Medal Performance at Silver Stick in Sarnia last weekend! You never know when Lightning will strike!