Girls’ hockey tourney saw exciting action

The 10th-annual Fort Frances Girls Hockey Association’s PeeWee and Bantam hockey tournament was held last weekend.
Nine PeeWee teams and eight Bantam squads vied for top honours from around the region, including International Falls, Baudette, and Greenway, Mn.
On the PeeWee side, the International Falls 12U girls prevailed over the Kenora Penguins 2-0 to win the championship while a pair of Dryden teams battled for the Bantam hardware.
In the end, the Dryden Hot Shots edged the Dryden Shooters 1-0 to claim the Bantam crown.
Here are the game results for the Fort Frances teams in the tournament:
< *c>PeeWee
< *c>BDO Stars
The BDO Stars, fresh off a victory in the recent Atom ‘A’ boys’ hockey tournament here, opened play on Friday morning against the eventual tournament champs from International Falls.
The Falls grabbed an early lead, but the Stars tied the game with 21 seconds remaining in the second period as Alyssa Penner scored (assisted by Alanna Walsh).
The Falls then connected for a pair of goals in the third period off the stick of Hillary Fox to claim a 3-1 victory.
The Stars’ second game of the day was against the Lake of the Woods Bears from Baudette.
The locals spotted Baudette a two-goal lead in the first period before Alyssa Penner (assisted by Kennedy Kellar) and Jessica Robinson (unassisted) tied the game.
Baudette netted the eventual game-winner from Sara Achen in the second period to close out a 3-2 win.
Undaunted, the Stars prevailed in their third game early Saturday morning, upending the Dryden PT Cruisers 3-2.
Penner, with two goals and an assist, led BDO’s offensive attack, with Jessica Ash also scoring. Emily Hyatt and Walsh chipped in assists.
In their fourth game, the Stars faced off against the Dryden Herricanes.
Another close contest ensued, with the Stars getting two goals from Libby Paleczny in the first period and another tally from Penner in the second en route to a 3-1 victory.
Robinson (two) and Kellar drew assists.
A 2-2 record seeded BDO fifth in the nine-team tournament and earned them a Sunday morning date with Greenway. The low-scoring affair saw great goaltending from Stars’ netminder Savannah Woods and Greenway goalie Hannah Schmoll.
A late third-period goal by Faith Filipiak earned sixth-seeded Greenway a 1-0 win.
< *c>Taylor Int’l Trucking/
< *c>Skates and Blades
It took a few periods to get rolling, but Taylor International and Baudette hooked up in a barnburner on Friday morning in the first game for both teams.
Both sides shot blanks in the first two periods, with all the scoring coming in the third.
After Baudette went up 1-0 at 10:01, Taylor International’s Elizabeth Henderson then tied the game with an unassisted tally at 8:24.
Baudette grabbed a 2-1 lead at 5:58, but Taylor roared back as Shelby Rea (from Shilo Beck and Henderson) evened the game at 2-2.
Then with just 31 seconds remaining, Bethany Easthouse scored her second goal of the game to give Baudette the narrow 3-2 victory.
Taylor International returned to the ice Friday afternoon against the K-Town Thrashers of Kenora. The two teams played a scoreless draw through two periods before exploding for six goals in the third.
Kenora grabbed a quick 2-0 lead early in the final period before Katie Martin replied unassisted for Taylor International.
K-Town then iced the game with three late goals for a 5-1 win.
Saturday afternoon saw the Taylor crew take to the ice against the Kenora Penguins, who would finish second overall in the tournament.
In a very clean game with no penalties to report, Kenora scored once in the first and added a pair in the third for a 3-0 win.
Eager for a victory, Taylor hit the ice again Saturday night and shot the lights out in a 5-2 victory over the Dryden PT Cruisers on goals by Nicole Horn, Katie Sinclair, Rea, Adriene Gurski, and Abbey Calder.
Horn (two), Sinclair, and Calder chipped in assists.
A 1-3 record left Taylor International as the seventh seed and earned them a rematch with the Dryden PT Cruisers. A classic battle ensued, with Rea (from Shailyn Loyie) scoring the only goal of the first period.
Dryden countered with a second-period goal while the third produced no scoring. The two teams settled the game in sudden death overtime as Sam Kosik of the Cruisers scored to earn the Dryden squad a 2-1 victory.
< *c>Bantam
< *c>Pinewood Blades
The Pinewood Blades hit the ice Friday morning and doused the Kenora Hot Hot Heat 3-2.
Bailey Langford scored unassisted goals in the second and third periods, with Jessica Taggart also scoring unassisted in the third, to power the Blades to the one-goal victory.
Pinewood laced ’em up again Friday night as they took on the Thunder Bay Gators. MacKenzie Paxson, who had a very strong weekend, backstopped the Blades to a 5-0 whitewashing of Thunder Bay.
Bridget Jorgenson led the offensive attack with two goals while Julie Magill, Langford, and Taggart added singles. Kim Holt, Allison Brown, and Ashley Smeeth added assists.
On Saturday morning, the Blades found the going much tougher as they played the Dryden Hot Shots, who jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first 11 minutes of the game before Taggart scored her third of the weekend to make it 3-1.
But the Hot Shots struck for four more goals in the second period to close out a 7-1 victory.
The win clinched first place for Dryden in Pool ‘B’ while the Blades had to settle for second place.
What transpired in the Blades’ fourth game—a semi-final date with the Dryden Shooters—surely must have been a girls’ hockey highlight in Fort Frances this season.
Coaches Brad Webb, Dave Taggart, John Holt, and Kyleigh Ossachuk had the Blades fired up from the get go. They forechecked hard, played solid team defence, blocked shooting lanes, and took time and space away from the very talented Dryden team.
The goaltending of Paxson also was simply incredible. She faced 41 shots, allowing just two goals, and time and time again stymied the Shooters with cat-like quickness and great rebound control.
Dryden scored first at the 4:56 mark of the second period as defender Erin McColm fired a wrist shot that deflected off of Paxson’s blocker—going up and over the big netminder and in.
But the Blades tied the game on a beautiful individual effort by Brown.
With 11 minutes to play in the second, Brown went one-on-one with a Dryden defender, using a nifty outside-inside move to blow by the defenceman before whipping a high, hard wrist shot blocker side to knot the score at 1-1.
A wild third period produced great saves at both ends but no goals until Alexis Reid of the Hot Shots fired home a rebound with just 1:45 left to earn the Hot Shots a berth in the championship final.
The Blades’ loss sent them to the bronze medal game Sunday morning against local rivals Kitowski Trucking.
< *c>Kitowski Trucking
There’s no question in these parts that the Dryden girls’ hockey program is a force to be reckoned with. And so the Mel Langtry/Glen Smith-coached Kitowski squad knew they had their gloves full Friday night as they began tournament play against the Dryden Shooters.
The Shooters built up a 3-0 lead on a hat trick by Alexis Reid before a late second-period goal from Jillian Langtry made the final score 3-1 in favour of the Shooters.
Kitowski suited up again Saturday morning and the Wheaties obviously kicked in immediately as the host squad dominated in an 11-1 win over the Thunder Bay Gators.
Leading the way offensively were captain Chelsea Hill with four goals, Langtry and Monica Woods with two each, and Taylor Dixon and Sydney Jones with singles.
Assists went to Chantal Jodoin and Hill (two each), as well as Woods, Langtry, and Amber Morriseau.
Kitowski then took on the Thunder Bay Maroons, earning a 3-3 draw. Langtry was the offensive sparkplug with two goals while Hill netted the other.
Dixon and Jones drew the assists.
Their 1-1-1 preliminary round record placed Kitowski second in the Pool ‘A’ and drew a semi-final date with the Dryden Hot Shots, who had finished first in Pool ‘B.’
Kitowski sprang from the gate and built a 4-2 lead through two periods.
Shae-Lynn Smith (from Katie Mathews), Amber Morriseau (unassisted), Jill Langtry (from Smith), and Taylor Dixon (from Lacey Durbin) put the local squad in charge through the first 40 minutes of play.
With 4:56 on the clock, Dryden drew within one on the power play and then Kayla Gardner scored in dramatic fashion with 1:28 to go to send the game to sudden death overtime.
With only 1:10 left in the OT and Kitowski on the penalty kill, Dryden sniper Alex Wesley fired home the game-winner and sent Kitowski to the bronze-medal game against local rivals Pinewood Blades.
Kitowski had bronze firmly in their grasp early Sunday afternoon, building a commanding 5-1 lead on three goals from Hill and singles by Dixon and Langtry.
Not to be outdone, though, the Blades roared back to close the gap to 5-4 with six minutes to play. Brown (two), Emily Drouin, and Taggart did the scoring.
The seesaw affair went right to the final buzzer, with the Blades on a power play, and with their goalie out, pressing for the equalizer. But Kitowski shut the door and claimed the bronze medal, with the Blades settling for fourth-place honours.
The Fort Frances Girls’ tournament will continue this weekend with the Novice, Atom, and Midget divisions in action beginning Friday at the Memorial Sports Centre.