The Storm Pee Wee Girls attended their first tournament of the season this weekend, the 16th Annual Kitchener Lady Rangers Fall Fest. While they did not bring home any hardware, the girls have every reason to be proud as they played well in all three games and faced some strong competition.The first game on Friday had the
Storm up against the host team Kitchener Lady Rangers. The Storm took the lead midway through the second
period on a nice goal by Alexis Martin (assisted by Jessica Martin). The Rangers turned it up a notch in the third
period and outshot the Storm by a wide margin, but goaltender Erica Parker
managed to hang on for the 1-0 shutout, stopping a breakaway with 17 seconds
left in the third and an extra Ranger attacker on the ice.
Saturday’s first game was against the
Port Hope Polar Bears, another team that the Storm had never faced. Things were looking up as Jessica Martin put
the Storm up 1-0 early in the second period (assisted by Emma DeBoer and
Brittany Greig), but the Polar Bears managed to tie the game early in the third.
They put it away with two quick goals 11 seconds apart late in the third for a
3-1 final.
The loss to Port Hope meant that the
second game on Saturday, against the Norfolk HERicanes, was a must win for the
Storm. The Storm fans were optimistic as
the Norfolk team had gone winless in the round robin. The game turned out to be
quite a spirited affair, with the HERicanes racking up 10 minutes in penalties
and their coach being asked to leave the bench by the officials. The Storm players kept their collective cool
but were unable to capitalize on the resulting power plays, one of them a 43
second 5 on 3. Norfolk scored a late
second period goal which proved to be the winner, sending the Storm home with a
1-0 loss.
Despite not coming home with a medal,
the girls (and their parents) all had a great time.