Well Pred’s
what a wild weekend full of hockey and our first tournament of the season is
under our belt! Now for a recap of some intense nail biting hockey for fans
coaches and players. But first I must
thank all of the parents, family and friends that continue to shock the team
and coaches with the cheers and fan fair at each game!! It is felt on the bench
every game.
Let’s start
at the beginning, Friday Morning, 4-0 loss to Essex White, 1 power play goal
against, outshot 38-14, enough said!
Our next
test came much later at 8:15pm against familiar rivals, Lakeshore White. After a brief dressing room “story time session”
to rally the troops and the team all on the same page after the morning’s game,
these girls turned up the effort right from puck drop. The ladies in Blue controlled the majority of
the game but the Lakeshore goalie and team were persistent and didn’t let the
goals come easy. A combination of
determination from Sophie Gobbo and Alexis Renaud managed to both push the puck
and the goalie into the net to break the scoring drought by not giving up on
the play. The 1st goal of the tourney
was credited to Sophie @ 5:10 of the 1st period. The lead was not long lived as Lakeshore
White got on the board with a shot that had seeing eyes and I swear changed
direction 3 times before it slid past the goal line @ 3:30 of the first. That was all these ladies needed was to shift
into another gear on the ice and the scoreboard. Both Elle Brinacombe and Blair Davis scored
twice each with assists from Sophie Gobbo on Elle’s first and Elle Brinacombe assisted
on Blair’s first. The SCP Blue secured
the win 5-1, outshooting the Lakeshore squad 24 – 12.
Saturday
morning brought a contest that has been anticipated since the season began and
the SCP teams were formed. We were
facing our association’s friendly rivals from Kingsville in the SCP White team. The energy was high before this game and did
not fall short till the final buzzer on the benches or in the crowd. Looking across to the crowd throughout this
game kept the smiles rolling for the girls and coaches. This was a tight, even skating game and was
held for the most part in the 1st period in the offensive zone.
Blair Davis got the team on the board @ 6:11 of the first with a semi break and
a great shot. The SCP Blue ladies were
relentless, peppering the SCP White goalie every chance they got. The Ladies in White found the back of the net
with 2:53 remaining in the 2nd to deadlock the game at 1-1. The rest of the game may have added white
hairs to some of the coaches and fans going back and forth until Blair Davis
had a break with a determined firecracker trailing, we will call Harper, Blair’s
shot rang off the post and snuck out from behind the goalie and right to a
waiting Harper Boudreau who found the back of the open net. The ladies in White piled on the pressure but
the ladies in Blue held out for the win 2- 1 outshooting White 32 -16 in the
contest. With this great outcome we had hoped
to maybe move on in this tourney.
Only a few
short hours later the SCP Blue were back on the ice to face an out-of-town foe
in the Cambridge Roadrunners. Just over 30 sec in Blair Davis opened the
scoring with an assist from Alyssa Middleton, this showed the energy from this morning’s
match was still alive and the bench and crowd seemed pumped. Elle Brinacombe wanted to join in the fun and
with only 2:10 remaining in the first, Blue was ahead 2 – 0. However, that energy ended abruptly with
Cambridge answering quickly, scoring only 13 seconds later to end the first
period up 2-1. The second period both
teams were jockeying for control with back and forth play until with just under
2 min remaining in the 2nd period, Cambridge found the back of the
net twice within 45 seconds to go ahead 3-2 at the end of the 2nd
period. Cambridge was a tough foe and as
soon as the ladies in Blue let off the gas the Roadrunners pounced. Now opening the 3rd period down by
1, SCP was on a mission and were determined to get at least one more. With 6:04
remaining in the third Elle Brinacombe fired an innocent dump in on net that
made it to the back of the net. The nailbiters
continued and this was it for scoring and lead to a 3-3 draw by two even
matched teams, even though we were outshot 22 – 16 by Cambridge, the team’s
tenacity gained them a valuable tournament single point. This led to the waiting game to see if the
hard work and comeback against Cambridge was going to send them to a semi-final
on Sunday morning. The word came in just
after 8pm Saturday night that we had made it to the 8am Sunday morning semi
final against Essex ladies in White.
In the wee
hours of a Sunday morning in Essex County, there was a team of girls crawling
themselves out of bed somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00am, to get to the rink for
well earned semi final in the Lakeshore Lightning tournament. A difficult opponent waited, who we had
opened the tournament with a loss of 4-0 to Essex White. Just to ensure all the parents, coaches and fans’
hearts needed another workout, an absolute back and forth battle began with the
first two periods ending scoreless. Just
because it was such a close game, a few penalties and shorthanded situations seemed
to be needed to make the game that much more exciting. Blair Davis took the first penalty for slashing
at 10:02 then the coaching staff decided to through a wrench into the game plan
getting dinged for too many players on the ice, that penalty was served by
Everly Parisien. Once again, the SCP
ladies in Blue stood strong to kill off both penalties, but with only 3:37 remaining,
at regular strength the only goal of the contest was scored by the rivel Essex
squad. With the shots being 23-11 in favor
of Essex it may look like our girls were outmatched but they showed that they
can compete with the top teams in our league.
Congrats ladies on a great first tournament of the year which seemed to
be a great team building weekend, but wait, the weekend of hockey was not over
yet!!
Later on,
that day the SCP rivalry that was a heartstopper on Saturday morning in Lakeshore
now included a rematch in our home barn in Harrow against SCP White for a regular
season league game. When they hit the ice,
it was game on!! Blair Davis opened the game @ 8:36 of the first with a nice
shot that rang off the post and in the back of the net with an assist from
Everly Parisien. The remaining first
period saw back and forth gameplay with both tendy’s coming up big for each
team. The second period was again back
and forth with heart stopping chances at both ends, the difference was the SCP
White squad were able to find the back of our net 3x in the second. In the third there was no let up from SCP
Blue, once again the net minders kept each team off the score sheet in the
third but if not for a few solid posts hit by Blue the game could have easily
been tied. It was a heartbreaker of a
loss but a great game for the crowd was played.
Shots of goal were slightly in favour of SCP Blue 24-21.
With all of
that hockey being played, thanks has to go to all of the friends and family that
continue to show up every game and make sure the atmosphere is electric. Now to give the shout outs to the awards chosen
by the coaches at the conclusion to every game this weekend. During the tournament games the tournament
provided Most Valuable Pucks for each game as well as our in-house award of the
hardest working predator. Game 1 vs
Essex White Evely Parisien was awarded the hardest working predator and Harper
Boudreau came away with the game MVP.
Game 2 vs Lakeshore White, Henley Cribley deservingly was chosen as hardest
working predator and Elle Brinacombe came away with the game MVP. In game 3 against SCP White, Alyssa Middleton’s
efforts awarded her as the hardest worker and Blair Davis was selected game MVP. The fourth
tourney game saw Elle Bezaire hustle her way to the hardest working predator
with Sophie Gobbo earning her bruises to get the game MVP. The semi final game saw a deserved Olivia
Versnel earning the hardest working predator along with Blair Davis earning the
final tournament game MVP. The last and
final game of the weekend against the SCP White for a league game saw Elle
Brinacombe get selected for the hardest working predator.
Once again thanks
to everyone for the great weekend of hockey and memories, GO BLUE!!