Staff
The local Pharmasave Wildcats Midget girls’ hockey team earned three ties en route to the consolation title at the “November Chill” tournament in Thunder Bay over the weekend.
The squad opened the tournament with a come-from-behind 4-4 tie against the Dryden Eliminators.
Dryden had led 2-0 after 20 minutes on goals by Kyley Engstrom and Amy Hale, then extended their lead to 3-0 early in the second off the stick of Halle Lobreau.
But the Wildcats turned the momentum in their favour when Shawnee Morrisseau broke the goose egg with just seven ticks on the clock to close the gap to 3-1 after two periods.
The Eliminators would come out firing in the third—getting a goal from Karly Tardiff to extend the lead to 4-1—and looked to be headed for a tournament-opening win.
That lead held up until the late stages of the period when Jessica Rea scored to cut the deficit to 4-2 with 3:40 to go. Then exactly two minutes later, Nicole Beadle netted her first to close it to 4-3.
With 18 seconds remaining, and their goalie pulled, Beadle won a draw back to the point which Crystal Sigurdson fired home to round out the scoring and give the Wildcats the improbable tie.
That tie became a trend as the Wildcats’ next game resulted in a 2-2 deadlock with the McDonald’s Bears (Thunder Bay).
Morrisseau and Katrina Wreggitt scored for the Wildcats while Jessica Badiuk earned the game’s MVP honours for her efforts between the pipes.
The Wildcats suffered their lone loss of the tournament in their third game, dropping a tough 2-1 decision to the Nipigon Rangers.
Tressa Galusha scored the game’s opening goal early in the second period off a pass from Paige Ward to get the Wildcats on the board, but Nipigon added one before the end of the period.
Hailey Watson netted the eventual game-winner early in the third.
Mackenzie Paxson, another goalie for the Wildcats, earned MVP honours for her fine play.
Their fourth game resulted in a third tie for the Wildcats, this time against the Thunder Bay Sharks.
Wreggitt opened the scoring in the middle frame with her second goal of the tournament, but the Sharks’ pulled their goalie and tied the game with under a minute to play.
Julie Magill earned the team’s MVP nod in the low-scoring affair.
Despite only one loss, the Wildcats finished fourth in their evenly-matched pool after round-robin play.
But they wrapped up the tournament on a winning note with a 7-2 win over Thunder Bay’s TNT in the consolation final on goals by Galusha, Lacey Durbin, Cassie McLennan, Ward, Wreggitt, Morrisseau, and Magill.
Rea earned the team’s MVP award in that game.
