The Walkerton Kinette Midget B girls travelled to the Sarnia International Silverstick finals and came home Gold medal winners for the second year in a row
The Kinette girls started their week-end off with a game
against Iderton. The Jets had beat the girls earlier in the season in the
finals of the Mitchell tourney so Walkerton wanted to settle the score.
Walkerton got off to a quick start thanks to captain Colleen Parks, picking the top
corner on the Ilderton goalie. Becky Busby assisted. Ilderton evened the score
at 1 with a power play goal late in the first and the first period ended 1-1.
The momentum had definitely shifted towards the Ilderton side and another power
play goal followed by 4 more on some pretty play making made the score 6-1
before Becky Busby potted one late in the third, Parks assisting, to make the
final 6-2. Katie Grubb guarded the twine
in this one and Parks picked up MVP for the game.
Their next game pitted
the girls against North Halton. Needing a win to keep
their hopes for the play-off alive, the Kinette girls again came out fast. Shae
Busby got Walkerton on the scoresheet first with Lauren Smith assisting. Becky
Busby sandwiched a couple goals around a Katie Pegelo goal in the second. Katie’s
goal had some “English” on it as she shot it from the red line. Parks picked up
2 assists on Bec’s goals and the D held strong for the rest of the game as
Walkerton came away with a 4-0 win. Grubb picked up the shut-out and Chantale
Bourque got game MVP.
Norfolk
provided their next opposition of the round robin and a win now guaranteed the
girls a semi-final spot. Norfolk
got out to a early 2-0 lead in the first and ended the first period with the
same 2-0 score. Walkerton didn’t panic, played their game and were rewarded
with a 3-2 lead at the end of the second period. Becky Busby, with one of her
patented “lazers” from the face off dot got Walkerton on the board early in the
second. Bourque and Parks assisted. Becky tied the game up on the powerplay
minutes later with a beautiful tip of a Lesa Kittel blast from the point. Parks
earned the second assist. Parks made it 3-2 with less than a second left in the
period to take the air out of the Norfolk
team. Becky and Alison Elphick assisted. Parks upped the lead to 4-2 early in
the third with a fine un-assisted effort, and Bourque closed out the scoring
picking the corner with a wicked shot that the Norfolk
goalie didn’t even move on. Rachel Diebold assisted. Emily Golem earned the win
for this game and Lesa Kittel was picked game MVP.
That win placed the
girls in the semi-final game against their arch rivals from Tiverton Sunday
morning.Walkerton jumped on a tired looking Tiverton bunch and were rewarded
half way through the first when Kittel ripped a shot from the point into the
top corner to give the Kinette’s a 1-0 lead. Smith earned the assist. Elphick
made it 2-0, 4 minutes later, Parks and Becky Busby assisting and the first
period ended 2-0. Becky made it 3-0 early in the second on the powerplay with
an electric shot to the top corner. Dieblod and Elphick picked up the assists.
Tiverton got on the board with 5 minutes left in the second and were picking up
momentum as the second period ended 3-1. Walkerton’s captain, Parks snuffed out
any momentum Tiverton had early in the third by scoring a pretty goal to make it
4-1. Smith earned the assist. Walkerton’s “D”, consisting of Leticia Barber,Jocelyn King, Diebold, Kittel
and Jasmine Richardson shut the Tiverton offense down the rest of the way with
help from the hard checking line of Bridget King, Erin Neil, and Christina Kaufman.
Grubb earned the win in net and Becky Busby was chosen game MVP.
This win placed the girls in the finals and the strong
Ilderton Jets team were there waiting for them. Determined to show Ilderton
they were better than they were in the tournament opener, the Kinette girls
were pumped and after a quick sweater change(thanks coach!!) they took it right
to Ilderton but after several good scoring chances they came up empty and the
first ended scoreless. The second period started with lots of back and forth
play as both teams were having a hard time finding the back of the net but at 10:33 Bourque jumped into the play and
one-timed a fine feed from Parks past the Iderton goalie to give Walkerton a
1-0 lead. Richardson received the
second assist. Ilderton upped the pressure but Grubb was equal to the task, not
to mention had a few lucky bounces go her way, as the second ended 1-0. The
third was a mirror image of the second with Ilderton pulling out all stops to
get a goal and the Walkerton girls doing everything to clear the puck and clog
up the neutral zone. After calling a time out with 2 minutes left, Walkerton
was rewarded when Smith blocked a pass ,went in alone from the red line and picked the top corner to make it 2-0.
Becky Busby finished Ilderton off with an empty netter, Parks assisting, to
make the final 3-0. Grubb picked up the shut-out in net and Smith was chosen
finals MVP.