By Rachel Williams
The Dunlop Fuels and Rintoul’s Pool and Spas Atom girls team saved their best hockey of the season for their year-end tournament in Keady on Saturday March 5th, coming away with a loss and two wins.
The Atom Storm faced Normanby in their first game at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Despite the early start, the girls played a strong game allowing only one goal. Unfortunately, they were unable to score and suffered a 1-0 loss.
At twelve o’clock the Atom girls faced Walkerton. The girls took the early lead when Jamie Miller, assisted by wingers Sasha Morano and Tori Sutter-Lammie, slid the puck past the Walkerton goalie midway through the first. With only seconds left in the period, Drew Besito came charging down the ice and fired a blistering shot on net to score the Storm’s second goal of the period.
The girls added 3 more goals in the second period. Miller slid a nice centering pass to Victoria Matheson who one-timed it to extend the lead to three. Then, Morano flipped the puck out from behind the net to Miller who tapped it past the goalie for the Storm’s fourth point of the game. A minute later, Besito, who was on fire this game, claimed her second goal on a pretty little pass from Matheson.
The Storm continued to pepper the Walkerton goal with shots in the third. On defense, Lauren MacDonald, Ainsley Harron, Marley Scott, Teena-Marie Ritchie, Rachel Kelly and Janelle Fowler did a superb job of keeping the puck inside the Walkerton blue line to allow the forwards shots on net. Midway through the third, Carly Acton had an excellent scoring chance stolen away from her by an awesome stick save by the Walkerton net minder. Meanwhile at the other end of the rink, Storm goalies Tiffany Kewageshig and Alyssa Trumbley remained solid in net, stopping everything that was thrown at them. In the end, Saugeen Shores notched up a 5-0 win.
The girls saved their best hockey for last, taking on Durham in an exciting, fast-paced, end-to-end game that literally left the fans leaping on the bleachers when the final buzzer sounded. Forward Amber Hou had been called up by the Toronto Marlies leaving a gap in the Storm’s roster for the weekend. However, the return of power forward Eve Martin for the Durham game bolstered the Storm line-up. The Atom girls were pumped and ready to play hockey.
Net minder, Kewageshig, was called upon early in the first to make some big saves to keep Durham off the scoreboard and she delivered. Kaitlin Ferguson had a good chance to get the scoring started, but the Durham goalie came up with a huge glove save. At the end of the period, the game remained scoreless.
The first goal of the game was scored with just under 6 minutes left in the second period when Miller tipped a nice pass to Tori Janes who was coming off the bench on a line change. Janes stick handled the puck up ice and fired a shot inside the far post to take the lead by one. Trumbley took over in net in the second, making some key saves during a penalty kill late in the period to maintain the Storm’s advantage.
Durham tied the game at the start of the third and followed up with a second goal several minutes later to take the lead. Spurred by this goal, Saugeen Shores dug deep and played with even more determination which paid off when Janes scored unassisted off a face off in the Durham zone to tie the game at two apiece. But within seconds, Durham managed to slide the puck past Trumbley to regain the lead. This must have incensed Drew Besito because a mere 7 seconds later, Besito collected the puck from the center face-off, stormed up ice and fired a blistering shot on net to tie the game 3-3. On the sidelines, the Saugeen Shores fans went wild.
The Storm needed one more goal to win and the girls delivered. With 28 seconds left before the final buzzer, Morano, assisted by Miller and Sutter-Lammie, stuffed the puck past the defending goal tender to score the winning goal and take the game 4-3.
Despite winning two of three games and losing the third game by one goal, the Saugeen Shores Atom girls did not progress to the finals – coming out on the short end of the tournament’s tie-break formula. However, they played two back to back games of spectacular hockey which showcased the skill, determination and team spirit instilled in them by the coaching staff throughout the year. Short of winning the tournament, it seemed a fitting end to a fabulous season. Thanks goes to head coach, Jenna Underwood and her coaching staff, Tracy Palinsky, Katie Kline and Kristan Shrider for their tireless efforts and dedication to the team throughout the season.