By Rachel Williams
In one of their strongest outings of the
season, the Dunlop Fuels and Rintoul’s Pool and Spas Atom Girls racked up two
recent wins against Walkerton, a 9-1 victory on Friday December 10th
and a 3-1 win on Saturday December 11th.
Teamwork and solid defence got the Storm off to a good start in the first period. Less than 30 seconds into the game, Kaitlin Ferguson, assisted by Victoria Matheson, put the puck in the Walkerton net to take the early lead.
Bolstered by this quick goal, the girls continued to play with confidence. On defence, Lauren MacDonald and Ainsley Harron applied pressure in the Walkerton zone keeping the puck inside the blue line. At the other end of the ice, Janelle Fowler and Rachel Kelly were first to the puck clearing it along the boards to the waiting forwards. Goaltender, Alyssa Trumbley, stopped all shots and looked strong in net.
Crisp passing by line mates Jamie Miller, Carly Acton and Tori Sutter-Lammie led to a great scoring chance halfway through the first period, but the girls were denied a goal by the Walkerton goalie. However, with less than two minutes left in the first, Sutter-Lammie won a face-off in the Walkerton zone sending the puck into the corner. Miller chased the puck, picked it up from behind the net and jammed it home to give Saugeen Shores the lead by two.
The Storm carried their offensive momentum into the second, scoring four more times by the end of the period. Sasha Morano kicked off the scoring at 10:15. Picking up her own rebound after a nice back-hand shot, Morano wrapped the puck around the net and stuffed it past the goalie to score the third goal of the game. Just a minute later, Miller, jumping off the bench on a line change, picked up a pass from Tori Janes and fired on net to score her second of the game stretching the lead to four. Again, at 7:56, Eve Martin, assisted by Ferguson and Matheson, tucked the puck in net to make it 5-0. Jamie Miller completed her hat trick with the sixth and final goal of the period by firing the puck in the slot past the screened Walkerton goalie.
Defence began pressing in the third. Defensive partners Marley Scott and Drew Besito began to play up with the forwards and this strategy paid off. Just under two minutes into the third, Scott tapped the puck inside the Walkerton goal post to score the 7th goal of the game. Assists went to Morano and Amber Hou. Seconds later, Rachel Kelly showed tremendous hustle stripping the puck from the Walkerton defence and charging up the ice. Her shot, however, missed its mark.
Tiffany Kewageshig took over as Saugeen Shores’ goalie for the second half of the game and played well in net. Despite her strong play, Walkerton managed to sneak one past Kewageshig halfway through the third to get on the scoreboard.
The Atom girls still had two more goals left in them and they saved them for the last minute of play. Tori Janes picked up a nice pass from Janelle Fowler, stick handled around the Walkerton defence and took a wide angle shot that slid past the goalie making it 8-1. With only 12 seconds remaining, Marley Scott, assisted by Miller and Hou, notched her second goal of the game. On a breakaway from centre ice, Scott picked the corner of the net, low on the stick side, to score the final goal of the game.
With a 9-1 victory under their belts, the Atom girls hit the road on Saturday to face the same team on Walkerton ice. Walkerton had a few more players added to their line-up for this game, but Saugeen Shores still managed to earn a 3-1 win.
The Atom girls will be enjoying a much deserved rest from game play over the Christmas holidays. They will be facing their next scheduled opponent in January 2011.