The final steps have been taken on the uphill path to the Provincial Grand Championships and the Walkerton Capitals (Kinettes) midget B girls’ hockey team can breathe a sigh of relief. Walkerton won their second game of a the best-of-three series against South Huron Sabres giving them two victories and, thus, will advance them on to the Provincials tournament in April.
Travelling to Exeter March 5 the blue and red kicked the game off to a good start with a goal less than half a minute into the game. Another Walkerton first-period goal did not make things look too promising for the Sabres who finished off the first down by two goals. Scoring the Walkerton goals were Lauren Bell and Katrina Grubb who each then assisted on the other’s goal.
A warm evening brought some very heavy ice to the rink but the girls all continued to fight for momentum and battled on. The Capitals were once again rewarded for their hard work, at 8:06 in the second, when Becky Busby did a sly poke check off the South Huron defenceman and the puck unexpectantly slid into the net.
Ahead with a 3-0 score Walkerton, perhaps, cooled their jets slightly in the third but a South Huron goal at 11:00 got them all fired up again. Determined to not let the Sabres launch a comeback Walkerton set about tilting the ice. Bell captured her second assist of the night as she fed the puck up to Richelle Busby at 6:14 and Busby obligingly slapped it into the back of the Sabres net. The 4-1 score would hold for the remainder of the game despite both teams creating more scoring chances.
In prep for The Big One, the midget Bs will be wrapping up their WOAA league schedule in the remainder of March and continuing to practice hard before their annual trek to the Hamilton Hawks tournament in April. Fingers crossed that these girls can continue to bring it all together, and have their hard work and determination rewarded.