Joey Payeur
Summer long weekends usually are centered around sun and fun.
While the sun may have been out, seven local hockey players and their Fort Frances coach also had no shortage of fun in Blaine, Mn. over the weekend.
The Thunder Bolts, coached by local resident Ron MacKinnon, captured the U12 Tier I division at the USA International Hockey Cup tournament in Blaine, Mn. with a 10-2 defeat of the 01 Os Selects in Sunday’s final.
“The girls played unbelievable,” said MacKinnon, whose squad rolled to a 5-0 record at the tournament while outscoring their opponents 36-3.
“They’re a really coachable group.”
The Thunder Bolts are based out of Thunder Bay, where they first gathered three summers ago to form the team.
Since then, though, the squad has taken on a definite Rainy River District look to it.
Lillie MacKinnon, Siobhan MacKintosh, Kelsey Langtry, and Jenna Clendenning represent the Fort contingent on the Bolts while Sydney Beck, Taylor Croswell, and Avery Cates make up the Emo-based portion.
The Thunder Bolts jumped to a 3-0 lead in the final, with Clendenning scoring just 52 seconds into the game.
The squad later connected twice in a one-minute span with a pair of man-advantage markers, with Cates drawing an assist on the second one.
The Selects scored before the period was out to cut the deficit to two. But the Thunder Bolts poured on the pressure in the second, lighting the lamp five times.
“It was only 3-1 in the second and suddenly the floodgates opened,” noted Coach MacKinnon.
“We had played them in the semis and it was the same thing,” he recalled.
“For a part of the time, it looked like the game could go either way.”
Clendenning netted her second of the game at the 2:02 mark of the second before the Bolts struck four more times in a span of 2:12 later in the period.
Croswell completed the outburst at the 8:50 mark, with MacKinnon setting her up.
Two more in the third, with Langtry assisting on the final one, made it 10-1 before the Selects notched a meaningless marker with just over a minute to go.
The Thunder Bolts held a 27-11 advantage in shots on goal, with Beck turning aside nine to earn the victory between the pipes.
“We played as a team and tried our best,” noted Beck, who will play house league hockey for the Emo Express this winter while also trying to make the Fort Frances Bantam ‘AA’ girls’ squad.
“It was one of our best tournaments yet,” she added. “We didn’t just win games by a couple of goals.
“I played pretty good but I didn’t have to face a lot of shots,” Beck admitted. “Our defence was really strong this tournament.
“I wish there was one or two more tournaments,” she lamented. “I don’t want it to be over.”
The Thunder Bolts, which also features players from Thunder Bay, Dryden, and Kenora, opened the tourney with a 7-0 whitewash of the Northern Polar Bears.
Clendenning had a goal in that one while Croswell, Cates, and MacKintosh added one assist each.
Beck made nine saves to post the shutout.
Clendenning then scored again in the Bolts’ second game—a 4-0 victory over the U12 Elite.
MacKinnon pitched in with an assist.
In a preview of the final, the Thunder Bolts blasted the 01 Os Selects 7-1 in their third outing.
Beck made seven saves to earn the victory while MacKinnon added an assist on the third Bolts’ marker.
Game 4 of the Bolts’ championship run was an 8-0 drubbing of the Lone Star Lady Wolves, with the local side holding a mammoth 60-2 advantage in shots on goal.
Langtry had a big game with a goal and two assists while Croswell added a goal.
MacKintosh and MacKinnon chipped in with an assist apiece.
The Thunder Bolts had finished third in two previous tournaments this year in Duluth and Winnipeg. Coach MacKinnon credited the team’s familiarity with one another as a big key to its success in Blaine.
“It was such a great experience when they first got together and they have stayed together each summer since then,” noted the bench boss, who now will shift his hockey focus to his duties as head coach of the Fort Frances Atom ‘AA’ boys’ team, which begins tryouts after the Labour Day weekend.
Rage on
Meanwhile, two other local players also made the trip to Blaine as part of the U10 Borderland Rage squad, which finished with a 1-4 record in the U10 Tier II American Division.
Fort resident Jillian Calder led her team in scoring with four goals and two assists in the five games while Emo’s Ashlyn Beck produced a solid effort playing right-wing.
“No one was sad after with how we played,” said Beck, the younger sister of Sydney.
“It was really fun to be in such a big arena and to play other big teams,” she noted.
“Just being in Minneapolis was fun.”
The Rage opened play with an 11-1 setback to the Miracle Black U10 Tier II team.
Calder’s first-period goal at 12:46 trimmed Borderland’s deficit to 2-1, but Miracle Black scored nine unanswered goals to cruise to the win.
The Polar Xpress U10 squad then downed the Rage 7-2 in their next game, with Calder notching an assist on a power-play tally at 16:24 of the second.
Borderland finally broke into the win column with a 6-4 victory over the 04 Machine Orange.
After a wild first period that ended in a 3-3 tie, Machine Orange took the lead at 4:14 of the second—only to watch Calder respond at the nine-minute mark to knot the game once again.
The Rage then connected twice more before the period was out to supply the margin of victory.
But in a rematch in the playoff round, Machine Orange exacted its revenge with an identical 6-4 defeat of the Rage.
Beck assisted on the game’s opening goal at 2:46 of the first before Borderland surrendered four-straight goals to trail by three.
Calder did her best to rally the Rage, scoring at 11:03 of the second and then setting up another marker at 1:16 of the third to make it 4-3.
But Machine Orange sandwiched goals 2:47 apart around Calder’s second of the contest at 5:05 to keep the Rage at bay.
That loss dropped the Rage into the consolation final, where the Bandits posted a 6-1 win over Borderland.
