Walkerton Knights of Columbus Atom Girls Rep. Bring Home Gold, News, Knights of Columbus Reps, U11, 2008-2009 (Walkerton Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2008-2009 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Mar 09, 2009 | cmckague | 1287 views
Walkerton Knights of Columbus Atom Girls Rep. Bring Home Gold
The Knights traveled to Brantford, Friday Feb. 27 to take part in the 28th Annual Walter Gretzky Girls Tournament.  A couple girls from the team were on vacation down south, so the girls had to work with various line mates and in some cases, play positions unfamiliar to them.  The girls never gave, up which really contributed to their success.

In game 1 on Friday afternoon, the girls were matched against Cornwall.  Cornwall had a few girls with shots of the caliber our team hadn’t seen in a while.  That, along with the terrible ice conditions, found the girls a little off guard.  After getting through the first few minutes, Nicole M. started the scoring for the Knights with an assist from Ashley E. about 7 minutes into the game.  Walkerton lead at the end 1st1-0.  Cornwall girls battled back in the 2nd period and was rewarded with 2 goals in consecutive shifts to take a 2-1 lead.  But Nicole evened the score again with 2 minutes left in the frame with assists going to Jasmine T. and Courtney W.  Shortly after that, Jaz gave the Knights the lead after a feed from Jenna H. to finish the 2nd period regaining the lead, 3-2.  Jaz scored again to start the 3rd frame, but Cornwall wouldn’t quit, and got their 3rd goal about the midway through the period, and another to tie it up with 2 minutes left.  Walkerton had to settle with a 4-4 tie.

            Game 2 was Sat. at 2:30 pm against Woolwich, and it was soon apparent that they were quite similar to the Knights.  Both teams played well defensively and waited for the other team to slip up, to take advantage of the mistake to get on the scoreboard.  Both teams had a few of these chances throughout the game, but when called on, both goalies did an amazing job to leave the final for the game a 0-0 tie.

            Our 3rd game was Sun. morning at 8 against Hamilton and the girls knew a win would guarantee a position in the final.  They played hard and when Hamilton got their 2nd penalty Jaz capitalized with a power play goal with assists from Nicole and Claire W.,

about 6 minutes into the game. That was the only goal of the first period.  The Knights doubled their score midway through the 2nd when Arianne B. received a beautiful pass from Jaz, to send her in alone on the goalie.  The goalie made the initial save, but Arianne wouldn’t give up until she was rewarded with a goal on the second rebound.  Both teams continued to battle hard on the big ice surface, but the defensive play and the net minders prevented any further goals, even when Hamilton pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. Walkerton won with 2-0 final which put them in 1st place in the round robin play.

            The Championship game was Sun. at 12:45 against the Woolwich girls and proved to be a lot like their first encounter.  Good scoring chances were kept to a minimum by the defensive play of both teams and the 1st period resulted in no goals being scored.  Woolwich started the scoring early in the 2nd frame with a nice pass and shot to net the first goal.  Jaz answered about 7 minutes later with a break away goal to even the game.  The Knights battled hard to take the lead in the dying seconds of the 2nd period, when Jaz finally put a rebound past their goalie, but it was a fraction of a second after the buzzer to end the period.  The game still tied at 1, the defensive battle continued through the 3rd period, without any goals being scored.  The girls played a 3 on 3, 5 minute overtime to end the stalemate, but again the goalies stopped all pucks their way.  So next, they went to a shoot-out and again both goalies stop everything until the 6th shooter, Jenna H. managed to slip the puck through the pads of the Woolwich goalie, to give the Knights the victory, and declared the Champions and the Gold Metal winners.

            Cassidy B. played awesome between the pipes for the Knights the entire tournament along with commendable support from Jordenne V., Dallas F., Erika S., and Courtney on defence and Lily S., Ashley, Jaz, Jenna, Nicole, Arianne, and Claire filling in the forward positions as required with the shortened bench.  Michelle B. and Hope D. did not make the trip to Brantford, but definitely contributed to development of the team to the exceptional level of play that was experienced throughout the weekend. 

            Congratulations Girls!!!