Staff
Five ties and seemingly 500 changes in momentum.
But in the end, it took just one shot to bring a painful end to another successful Muskie girls’ hockey season.
The eighth-ranked All Saints Titans (Whitby) topped the 11th-seeded Muskies 6-5 yesterday afternoon in the quarter-finals at the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ girls’ hockey championship in Stratford.
The Titans led three different times and the Muskies twice in forging a 5-5 tie late in the third period after Annalise (CC) Hayes drew Fort High even with her hat-trick goal with 3:13 to go.
But after consecutive icing calls against the Muskies kept the face-off in their zone, the Titans wired home a shot from the slot over the shoulder of rookie goalie Kamryn Sandelovich for the game-winner with just 1:15 left in regulation time.
Muskie captain Janelle Kaemingh had a goal and an assist in what likely was the Grade 12 forward’s last high school game, barring a “victory lap” return next season.
Taylor Croswell had the other goal for the Muskies, who also stand to lose Grade 12 forwards Lauren Hamilton and Jess Steele, as well as senior blueliners Abby Plourde and Sara Jackson.
The Titans wound up beating the seventh-seeded Kincardine Knights 5-3 in the semi-finals earlier today to qualify for this afternoon’s gold-medal game against the 13th-ranked Ecole secondaire catholique L’Escale Cougars (Rockland).
The Cougars pulled off the shocker of the tournament in the other semi-final this morning, upsetting the top-ranked and two-time defending champion St. Michael Warriors 3-2.
The host Warriors had steamrolled through the preliminary round and the quarter-finals by a combined score of 26-1.
St. Michael and Kincardine will play for bronze later today.
