Staff
With three teams and close to 40 players, the Fort Frances Girls’ Hockey PeeWee house program has enjoyed a banner season so far.
With John Hazel heading up the Lakewood Tire Eagles, Larry Beck leading the Super 8 squad, and Stuart McIvor in charge of Kitowski Trucking, the players have benefited from excellent coaching and a schedule based on plenty of practice time as well as many exhibition and tournament games.
A new initiative for 2008/09 has been the creation of the NorFab PeeWee girls’ travel team—an affiliate team built on the ‘AA’ concept utilized in the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association’s program.
All four teams have enjoyed successful outcomes so far, with the Kitowski squad earning three-consecutive victories in recent games.
On Monday night, the “Truckers” got it into gear quickly as they registered 13 goals against the fast-skating Atom Esso boys’ team.
Amy Penner led the way with four goals and a pair of assists while Claire Sandelovich chipped in with three goals and two assists.
Brittany Hyatt lit the lamp twice, to go along with one assist, Angel McCormick had a goal and an assist, and Sydney McLeod, Alexis Perrault, and Sarah Milling added singles.
Hunter Koles replied with a pair for Esso.
On Dec. 23, Kitowski hosted the International Falls U12 team. Once again, the Truckers were firing on all cylinders as they peppered Falls’ goalie Taylor Fish with 31 shots en route to a 9-1 victory.
Sandelovich opened scoring at 9:11 of the first as she snapped home an unassisted marker to give the home side a 1-0 advantage. Then right-winger Cassandra Moffitt netted her first of two with 20 seconds left in the period as Milling drew the assist.
The Truckers scored early and often in the second frame as Sandelovich extended the lead to 3-0 off a nice feed from Penner just 48 seconds in. Moffitt then pumped her second of the game at 10:35 set up by McLeod.
Sandelovich sealed her hat trick with 3:13 left in the second period, with Milling earning the assist.
Just over a minute later, Sandelovich registered her fourth goal of the contest, taking a feed from Hyatt to make the score 6-0.
Milling finished the second-period outburst, scoring on a nice individual effort with 35 seconds left to give Kitowski a 7-0 lead after two periods.
The third period featured lots of back and fourth action, with Taylor Zanchenuk getting the Falls on the board five minutes in after sneaking a puck past Kitowksi goalie Calie Clendenning.
The home side responded with a pair of late goals—Penner unassisted at 2:59 and McCormick from Moffitt with a minute to go—to close out the victory.
That win came on the heals of an 8-3 victory Kitowski had registered versus the Falls U12 club two weeks ago at Bronco Arena.
The Truckers put their foot to the floor in the first period as Sandelovich, Penner (two), and Perrault all scored to stake the visitors to an early 4-0 lead.
Continued stellar play from the defensive corps created numerous chances for the forwards in the second frame as Sandelovich netted her second and third goals of the game, with Penner notching her second, to pace Kitowski to a 7-3 lead after two periods.
Sandelovich banged home the game’s finally tally with 2:33 left in the third to close out an 8-3 win.
Coach Stuart McIvor has been enthused with his club’s total team play of late, in particular citing the strong performance of Clendenning in net and defenders Libby Paleczny, Kassidy Ogden, Liz Henderson, and Milling.
He also praised the relentless forechecking provided by wingers Rachel Devoe, Moffitt, McLeod, and Hyatt.
All three local PeeWee house teams will be heading to Hibbing on Jan. 16-18 for an eight-team U12 tournament.
