the FFGHA
The local Kaemingh Esso Atom girls’ team went 2-2 to advance to the bronze-medal game of the November Chill girls’ hockey tournament in Thunder Bay over the weekend.
Their first win was a 2-1 decision against the Thunder Bay Bears, with Emma Noga notching both goals for Esso.
Their second win was 7-1 against Nipigon. Alyssa Alderson led the way with a hat trick while Noga, Maighyn Degagne, Caitlan Visser, and Sara Jackson (on a beautiful wrist shot) added singles.
The team’s two losses were against a pair of strong Thunder Bay squads.
Carly McKinnon made excellent saves to keep the scores low in a 3-0 loss to the Thunder Bay Hurricanes and a 4-0 setback against an even stronger Thunder Bay Magic team, with each team getting about 30 shots on net.
On Sunday morning, Kaemingh Esso met the Thunder Bay Bears again in a very exciting match-up.
After a scoreless first period, the Bears took the lead during the second frame.
Not to be outworked, the Esso girls gave a strong effort and decided to pull their goalie in the final minute of regulation time in hopes of tying up the game.
And it paid off. With 31 seconds left in the game, Noga fought her way through the defence and took a hard shot that slipped past the goalie to send the game to overtime.
The first five-minute overtime was scoreless as McKinnon made some awesome saves to keep Esso in the game.
The second overtime consisted of four shooters, with Alderson, Noga, and Degagne scoring three of the four shots to tie the Bears, who also got three of the four shots to put the game into a third overtime!
Siobhan MacKintosh came through for the Esso, scoring the sudden-death goal with the Bears having one shooter left to try and tie up the game.
But McKinnon kept her eye on the puck and protected her net as Esso clinched the bronze-medal game.
