The Bantam Girls Lambton Shores Predators took part in the Walter Gretzky 32nd Annual Girls’ hockey tournament in Brantford Feb 22-24. Their first game was against league rival St. Clair Storm. Coaches tweeked the line-up by moving Sydney Getty to forward and moving Hailey-Bayne Foster to defence. The game went back-and-forth with both teams getting some good chances. Hadley Cornelious and Holly Shelton provided solid defense throughout the game. Despite generating scoring chances throughout the game, the Predators fell short 2-0 in their tournament opener but coaches felt the team was playing well and in for a good tournament. Sydney Getty earned the team’s MVP for the game for her offensive drives.
In their
second game, the Predators took on another league rival, the East Lambton
Eagles. Scoring was opened in the first period by an unassisted goal from
Jessica O’Leary-Dilosa, the team’s captain. The Eagles took the lead with
3 goals in the second period, but the Predators were determined going into the
third. Less than a minute into the third, Natasha Curran won a battle for
the puck in the corner, then made a quick move to drive the puck to the front
of the net where Katelyn Aikin tied up the Eagles defense allowing Olivia
Schenk to find the loose puck in the scramble and tapping it in to cut the lead
in half. A nice goal by this grind line! Still trailing by one late
in the third, Predators pulled their goalie and continued to apply
pressure. The tying goal was scored by Madison Van Haaren with assists going
to Natasha Curran and Sydney Getty. The team’s game MVP was awarded to
Olivia Schenk for her excellent two way play.
The
Predator’s third and final game of the regulation around was against the
Waterloo Ravens. The game was a physical one but the Predators held their
own, taking 5 of the 12 penalties called in the game. Coach Mark
Cornelious wore a pink tutu early in the game to distract the other team.
Hailey Bayne-Foster was strong on defense, frustrating Waterloo in front of
goalie Morgan Mackenzie with her physical play. In a battle behind her
own net, Hailey won the puck to a teammate who cleared it but in the battle,
ended up falling awkwardly and eventually left the game with a “lower body
injury”. Sarah Scott, as always, showed no fear in many battles along the
boards. Vanessa Soetemans had a strong defensive game, with her back
checking eliminating several Waterloo chances. Late in the third,
with Waterloo leading 1-0, Predators again pulled their goalie in an effort to
tie the game, but this time the strategy ended up with Waterloo potting an
empty net goal to take the game 2-0. The team’s game MVP was Morgan
Mackenzie for her excellent play in goal.
With 2 of
the 3 teams in each pool moving to the semi-final’s, the Predators earned the 2nd
spot in Pool B based on a good goal differential tie-breaker. Semi-final
was played on Sunday, against the Pool A first place Waterloo Ravens.
Waterloo scored once in the first, and twice in the second to lead
3-0 going into the third. Coach Owen Shelton, with his Cat-in-the-Hat
hat, gave a short pep talk to “the Things” between periods. Hailey stayed
on the bench for the game, to cheer on her teammates. On the first shift
of the third, Holly Shelton moved the puck up to Madison Van Haaren who made a
nice pass to herself off the boards to beat the first defender then cut inside
to beat the second, and finally sliding the puck between the legs of the
Ravens’ goaltender. The team got fired up and generated more
offense. Vanessa Soetemans made several nice give-and-go passes to keep
Predators moving up ice. Taylor Getty held the puck inside the blue line
several times on some good pinches, and had several shots getting the puck to
the front of the net for some good chances. The MVP for the Predators was
awarded to Madison Van Haaren.
As with any
tournament, the most important thing was for everyone to have fun.
That’s one thing the Predators girls do without fail. The girls were
provided with “Thing” T-shirts with their jersey numbers (the reason for the
Cat-in-the-Hat set-up mentioned above), which they proudly wore all weekend.
Special thanks to our manager, Tracy Aikin, for all her work behind the
scenes in making this weekend such as success. What a great group of
girls !!