Written by Brad Humphrey. The girls had some good games on the weekend playing Kitchener on Saturday and Woodstock on Sunday. Both games at Howick Arena. Saturday was sponsor day with all the teams playing and lots of spectators.
The girls had some good games on the weekend with Kitchener Saturday and Woodstock Sunday.
The SML team was ready for action Saturday and played knowing the Kitchener team would be tough to play in the smaller Howick rink. The game was back and forth with lots of action in the Kitchener end. SML outshot the Kitchener team 38 to 14 for the game. The goalie, M Rankin from Mount Forrest, made many good saves for Kitchener. The SML Midgets had great opportunities but could only find the mesh 1 time. Final score was 2-1 for Kitchener with the only goal for SML from the hot stick of Regan Cook, assist from Aleya Murray. Many of the SML players worked hard and dug in as the SML team dominated the play, but as hockey will sometimes goes, the hockey gods were not on our side that day. Julia Gaynor was busier than the shots indicated with tough scrambles to recover from and made some timely saves.
Sunday was a rematch to a chippy game earlier in the year. Woodstock has a slower team, but make it up with showing the festive season is coming, with plenty of close contact and hugs. The game was off to the expected start and the girls were on the PP right away. Scoring on the PP was Morgan Murray from Ashley Stevenson and Courtney Wilkens. From there Woodstock backed off and the game was good back and forth hockey. Late in the second, the draw was won by Morgan Murray back to Robin Montgomery, Robin blasted a snap shot towards the net and into the bottom corner to put SML up 2-1. With going into the third, SML up 2-1, Woodstock was playing desperate hockey and picked up the rough play. A scramble in front of the net saw a lucky bounce go Woodstocks way and tied up the game at 2-2. Mid way through the third, a nice passing play starting deep in the SML end with Madison McBride passing over to Taylor Humphrey who fed a nice pass up to Aleya Murray, made a nice move to put SML up one. Woodstock didn’t quit and crashed their way to another scramble to tie it up at 3 again.
Late in the third a break away by Woodstock look like a back breaker, but Julia Gaynor flashed the leather and snapped up a shot heading to the top corner…great save to keep the game tied.
End result was 3-3.
All the girls had a strong weekend with a loss and a tie, the quality of shots is better every game and the creativity of the plays are fun to watch. Many girls played really well and our centres had lots of ice with us missing a forward on the lines…good job midgets, keep working hard !!