Feb 07, 2015 | vaneyk | 866 views
London Devilettes Tournament
The Atom C Girls enter the Atom B Devilettes tournament and go 2-1-0.
The girls have been having a great year and the team staff decided to give the girls a tough challenge before the OWHA playdowns and WOGHL playoffs. We entered the London Devilettes tournament in the B pool.
This was going to be a great opportunity and a tough challenge for the girls. Our first game was against the St. Thomas Panthers who had beaten us twice in exhibition. We played well but didn't capitalize on our chances and the Panthers made us look average winning 5-1. It was a tough loss and the girls were dispirited after the game. They felt it was unfair they had to play against Atom B teams.
Our next game against the Mississauga Chiefs went much better as the girls rebounded with their best game of the season to win 2-0 on multiple chances. Even the Referee noticed that we had the Chiefs pinned in their end for most of the game. This win left us 1-1-0 but with only two teams advancing to the playoffs we needed a big win against the LLFHL Western Conference Champion Sarnia Jr. Lady Sting Atom B team to move on.
Our chance came on Saturday morning on the big ice at Western Fair. The Sarnia team looked fantastic in warmups and it was apparent that this was the best team we'd faced all year. Our game started well but a slashing penalty on our first shift of the game had the Sarnia fans on the edge of their seats anticipating an early goal. The Lancer penalty kill was dominant in all three zones outworking the Sting. This exceptional team effort would continue throughout the game and the Lambeth Lancers played almost flawless hockey to stay in against a very skilled Sarnia team. The first period ended with Lambeth taking a one goal lead on a rush by Sam "Scrapper" M. with the assist going to Vanessa V.
But the Sarnia Sting aren't a league champion for nothing, they pushed hard with great skill and speed pressuring the Lambeth D and forcing Carlee "Big Rig" J. to come up with some great saves. One particular glove save stands out in this writer's mind as the best all season. By the end of the second period the Sarnia Sting had been held scoreless.
Entering the third there was a palpable change, the girls realized they could play with the best Atom B teams, they could win. By the mid point of the third the Lancers began to take the play to Sarnia forcing their goalie to make the tough saves to hold their team in against us. By the end of the game these teams looked well matched but the Lancers held the victory 1- 0. After all that, three teams in our Pool had 2-1-0 records and even though we had two shutouts we were out of the playoffs.
There are many good things to take away from this tourney. It was awesome to see the girls rally back from a tough loss with two outstanding games. The win against Sarnia served to prove that hockey is a team game. To win two games required the girls to trust each other, outwork the opposition and overcome the odds.
This team is ready for a few more championships!