Staff
With every passing minute, the pressure and exhaustion mounted for the Fort Frances Screaming Eagles simultaneously with their heart and desire to overcome adversary.
In the game’s deciding moment, the former won out over the latter.
Shannon Legacy created her own lasting moment by scoring on a breakaway with 1:51 left in overtime to give the Thunder Bay Sabres a 3-2 victory over Fort Frances in the final of the Emo-Devlin-Barwick Minor Hockey Association’s Midget girls’ tournament Sunday at the Emo-La Vallee Arena.
The blueline quartet of Katelin Gurniak, Danielle Cridland, Khali DeGagne, and Macey Weir valiantly withstood a game’s worth of double-shifting in the face of a Sabres’ lineup that had three extra bodies at its disposal.
But on a 1-on-1 rush, Legacy got Gurniak to lean to the outside before darting inside for a clear path to the net.
Legacy waited until the last second, then deked to the backhand and tucked the puck under Eagles’ goalie Sarah Calder.
Madison Morrison got the Eagles flying just 1:40 into the game–taking a shot from a difficult angle along the goalline that somehow found its way behind Sabres’ goalie Laura McDonald.
The Sabres tied it with just under four minutes left in the frame as Taylor Gombola didn’t give up on a puck that appeared to be underneath Calder and jammed one in.
But only 1:36 later, an impromptu 3-on-2 saw Hailey Tucker feather a pass over to Morrison, who ripped a shot past McDonald high to the glove side for a 2-1 edge.
The Eagles seemed ready to ride that tally to victory, especially after they survived three-straight penalties that gave them back-to-back two-player disadvantages in the first four minutes of the third.
But with the teams playing 4-on-4, Shealagh Hennessey’s point shot and Legacy’s rebound try were blocked by Calder–only to have Madison Martinuzzi make good on a third shot with 6:55 left in regulation time.
Martinuzzi hit the post early in the overtime, then Calder made a tricky save on a double deflection shortly thereafter before Legacy’s heroics.
The Eagles opened the tournament with a 4-0 win over the Lake of the Woods Ice Bunnies.
Hannah McKee led the attack with a pair of goals while DeGagne and Tucker added singles.
Calder earned the shutout.
The Eagles then held off a late charge by the Thunder Bay Tigers for a 3-2 victory.
Morrison and Tucker each had a goal and an assist in that one while McKee also lit the lamp.
Tucker went on a scoring spree in the Eagles next game–tallying a hat trick while adding an assist in a 6-1 thumping of the Thunder Bay Predators.
Bryanna Dustin, Morrison, and Shannon Bird–in the final tournament of her minor hockey career–got the other goals.
In the semi-finals, the Eagles went up against a familiar foe in the form of the Fort Frances Snipers.
It was Tucker stepping up to provide the overtime winner with just 12 seconds left in the extra frame to give her squad a 3-2 victory.
Dustin had the other two goals for the Eagles while Carlee Beazley and Makenna Henttonen replied for the Snipers, who started their weekend with a 2-0 shutout of the Emo Express.
Henttonen and Maighyn DeGagne each scored in the final 2:06 of regulation to pull out the win.
Ziggy Skead won a goaltending battle with Express fill-in netminder Carlee Holmstrom, who was loaned to Emo by her Bantam team in Kenora with the Express’ usual goalie out of town for the weekend.
The Snipers were in another low-scoring affair in their second game–squeezing out a 1-0 triumph over the Lake of the Woods Dyn-o-mite.
Callie Loveday got the goal while Skead put up the goose egg.
The Sabres then ended the Snipers’ winning streak with a 4-1 win as Loveday again supplied the lone marker for her team.
The host Express followed their opening loss to the Snipers by succumbing 6-1 to the Sabres.
Pasquel Shortreed had the lone goal for Emo, which then had a most memorable performance in its third game.
Trailing the Dyn-o-mite 3-0 after two periods, the Express refused to surrender as Kaitlyn Hay bulged the twine 40 seconds into the third.
Emo kept applying the heat and it paid off as Taylor Croswell netted her second assist of the period by setting up Morgan Gibson for a rocket that found the back of the net with 5:13 to go.
Only 35 seconds later, Gibson turned into a play-maker by feeding Megan Anderson for the final goal in what would finish as a 3-3 tie.
In a game to decide who would play for bronze, though, the Express gave up four third-period goals to fall 6-0 to the Tigers.
The EDBMHA will hold its annual year-end awards banquet March 25 at 6 p.m. upstairs in the arena.
