Staff
A pair of Fort Frances squads won the final games they played at an Atom girls’ hockey tournament in Emo over the weekend.
The Rolling Lake Lightning captured gold with a 3-2 win over the Lake of the Woods Flyers while Kaemingh Esso tripped up the Emo Penguins 5-0 to snag bronze.
The Lightning opened play Friday afternoon with a 5-0 whitewash against the Guenther Flames (Dryden).
Annalise Hayes had a hot stick scoring two goals—both on first-period breakaways.
Hayes then complete the hat trick with a shorthanded goal in the second.
Bryanna Dustin netted the fourth goal for the Lightning, tipping in a Hayes’ pass, before Hayes notched her fourth of the game with 1:48 left to round out the scoring.
Marissa Loveday earned the shutout in net, with Hayes being awarded the game MVP.
Rolling Lake then faced a tough Kenora Flyers squad Friday evening.
Loveday stood tall in net early, robbing Alex Williamson with a sweet glove save.
Williamson got her revenge, though, putting the Flyers up 1-0 in the second.
But with 1:33 to go, Abby Plourde rushed the puck to the Flyers’ zone and made a crisp pass to Hayes, who dumped the puck into the net to salvage the 1-1 tie.
Loveday earned game MVP honours for her efforts between the pipes.
Saturday saw the Lightning beat the host Penguins 4-1 thanks largely to three first-period markers.
Plourde’s breakaway goal started things off, inspiring Dustin and Kassidy Fryer to get on the scoresheet, as well.
Kelsey Langtry rounded out the Lightning scoring with five seconds left while Kailey Croswell nettedthe lone goal for Emo.
Dustin earned game MVP.
Rolling Lake’s next game came against their Fort Frances rivals, Kaemingh Esso.
Esso opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game when Alyssa Alderson found the net.
Not to be outdone, the Lightning struck back a minute later when Plourde deked her way through the neutral zone, carried the puck into Esso’s end, and fired a hard wrist shot that went past an Esso defender and goalie Carly McKinnon to tie the game at 1-1.
Then with only 11 seconds left in the first, Hayes scored on a breakaway—finding the corner of the net to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
The second and third periods were defensive battles, with neither team finding the net to preserve Rolling Lake’s 2-1 win.
Hard work and effort earned Plourde game MVP honours.
The championship game was a rematch against the high-powered Kenora Flyers.
Hannah Fisher opened the scoring for Kenora early in the first, pouncing on a loose puck that Loveday thought she had covered up.
But less than two minutes later, Hayes battled her way through two defenders, glided to the left of the goalie, and fired a shot into the corner of the net to tie up the game at 1-1.
Then on that line’s next shift, Hayes hustled her way through three Flyers and wheeled her way to the net to notch her second of the game.
Hayes completed her second hat trick of the tournament just over three minutes into the middle stanza to increase the lead to 3-1.
During the third period, Jenna Clendenning drove her way to the net to score a goal–only to have it called off.
With 10 seconds left on the clock and their goalie pulled, Williamson was able to find the net to nudge the Flyers to within 3-2.
But the Lightning were able to hunker down for the final seconds to secure the gold medal.
As for Kaemingh Esso, the squad came out fast Friday afternoon to blank the host Penguins 7-0 in their opening game.
Emma Noga recorded a hat trick while Siobhan MacKintosh and Alyssa Alderson added two each.
Noga stayed hot in the next game, tallying four goals in a 6-0 whitewashing of Dryden. Caitlan Visser and Madison Morrison rounded out the scoring.
Carly McKinnon earned her second shutout of the day in net.
But Saturday was a different story for Kaemingh. First, they fell 2-1 to the Rolling Lake Lightning, then were blanked 5-0 by the Kenora Flyers to scuttle their hopes of playing in the ‘A’ final.
Esso then faced the Penguins once again Sunday morning for the ‘B’ crown. Coming out strong in the first period, Alderson scored a pair for Esso while Visser and Maighyn DeGagne each recorded singles.
After a scoreless second, Alderson finished her hat trick to hand Kaemingh the 5-0 win and the bronze medal.
McKinnon earned her third shutout in five games over the weekend.
Hailey Tucker, Visser, Khali DeGagne, and Maighyn DeGagne all received game MVP honours over the course of the tournament.
