By Jacqueline Kippers
The Saugeen Shores Queen’s Bar & Grill/Giant Tiger Midget Girls team traveled to Orillia for a tournament the weekend of January 14-16. They defeated Ennismore 2-0, lost to Keene 3-2 and defeated Belmont 1-0.
The Queen’s Bar & Grill/Giant Tiger team started strong in the first game, out-skating, out-playing, out-shooting, and out-scoring the team from Ennismore. The most interesting part of this game was the officials’ willingness to assign penalties rather then let the teams play. A total of 13 penalties (6 to Saugeen Shores, 7 to Ennismore) were handed out in what appeared to the spectators to be a relatively clean game. Saugeen Shores’ first goal came at 6:43 of the first, on a power play, when team Captain, Rachel Douglas, fired a blistering wrist shot from outside the blue line that stymied the Ennismore goalie. Natasha Kippers assisted. Mackenzie Brown recorded the insurance goal at 5:23 of the second on a backhand shot in front of the net. Michaela Ferguson and Sarah Drake recorded the assists on Brown’s goal. One of the many penalties handed out was an Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalty to Ennismore in the third, for “snowing” the Storm goalie after a whistle. The shut-out went to Mackenzie Bertrand.
Game two occurred at 10:30 Friday night, and was a closer game with penalties even at 4 each, and shots 18-17 for Keene. However, it wasn’t until the third period that the Storm took control of the play, and by then they were down 3-0. They fought back hard in the last period, and two goals by Brown brought them close, but it wasn’t enough. Brown’s first goal came on a power play, and her second one was a beautiful shot just under the crossbar.
Penalties were the story again in game three. The Storm played much of the first and third periods short-handed, having 7 penalties in the game, to Belmont’s 1. However, deserved or not, they played on. Early in the first, while the Storm was killing the first penalty, Brown took the puck in the Storm end, flew down the ice, blew by the Belmont defense, and pinged it off the post. Micheala Ferguson scored the lone goal at 9:31 of the third, on Nicole Pineault’s rebound. Bertrand earned her second shut-out of the tournament.
All four teams in the pool ended the round robin with a 2-1 record, and advancement was determined by goals for and against. Despite having two shut-outs, the Storm did not have enough “goals for” to advance.