Staff
Things began well and ended well for the Fort Frances Pharmasave Wildcats Midget girls’ team at the 15th-annual Lake of the Woods tournament last weekend in Kenora.
In between, though, the Wildcats fell in three-consecutive hard-fought battles.
Fort Frances opened with a 6-3 victory over Lake of the Woods.
Bridget Jorgenson opened the scoring at 5:50 of the first but Kenora’s Erin Gasparini evened the game with 1:43 left in the frame.
Jorgenson tallied her second of the game to regain the lead before Amber Jourdain, called up from the PeeWee level, scored 1:50 later to balloon the lead to 3-1.
Alli Brown added another for the Wildcats just 45 seconds later.
Kenora replied with another late-period goal as Karly Kantola tallied with 1:30 to go to cut the deficit to 4-2.
In the third, Kenora got within one on Micah Devlin’s goal.
But Kimmy Holt provided an insurance marker with 5:30 to go, then Jorgenson completed her hat trick with 1:09 left on a breakaway.
In their second game of the tournament, the Wildcats again struck first—this time against the Red River Wild from Manitoba.
Nicole Beadle scored unassisted goal at 5:31 but the Wild quickly tied it at 3:23.
Red River scored once in the second to take a 2-1 lead, then put the game out of reach with a pair of goals early in the frame.
Abby Perreault, also called up from PeeWee rounded out the scoring with 24 seconds remaining to make the final score 4-2.
The Wildcats then squared off against the Lake of the Woods Predators and fell victim to a quick blitz—falling behind 4-0 early in the second period after getting into some penalty trouble.
Beadle got the Wildcats on the board with 8:32 to go in the second, but Kenora wiped it out with a shorthanded goal moments later.
Katrina Wreggitt brought Fort Frances to within 5-2 with 1:13 left in the third, but they would get no closer as they fell to 1-2.
In the fourth game, the Wildcats matched up against Kenora Orange Crush but lost a defensive showdown 1-0.
After four games, the Wildcats were deadlocked with their cross-town rivals, Doug Kitowski Trucking, for the right to advance.
Both teams had identical goals for, goals against, and penalty minute statistics, with Kitowski Trucking advancing after a coin toss.
The flip of the coin dropped the Wildcats to a consolation game, where they again met Lake of the Woods, winning 4-1.
Kenora opened the scoring late in the first on a goal by Elizabeth Romaniuk at 1:31. But Wildcat goalie Cassie McLellan would allow nothing further.
After a scoreless second, the Wildcats exploded for four in the third, with Beadle beginning the rally at 9:22.
Brown notched the eventual game-winner 32 seconds later while Beadle tallied again 50 seconds after that.
Tressa Galusha then finished the blitz at 6:27 to secure the 4-1 win.
