Good showing for Lightning Teams at AA Provincials
The U14AA-Roman team skated away with a Bronze medal when they defeated the Guelph Predators 5-2 in the Bronze medal final at the AA Provincial’s held in London, Ontario March 12 - 15.
Despite playing with a short bench after losing two defence players (Brianne McGrath and Brianna Lee) to injury in a tough 4-2 semi-final loss to the eventual gold medalists, London Lynx; the Lightning displayed an incredible amount of determination in securing the Bronze medal, and have become the first RHRA Lightning U14AA team to win a Provincial medal.
Mackenzie Snelgrove led the way, staking the Lightning to a 4-2 half time lead with a pair of goals and an assist before adding another marker with just over five minutes remaining in the second frame to dispel any thoughts of a Predators comeback. Kate Vandeloo netted the other Lightning tallies while assisting on another, with Amy Bradford adding a pair of assists.
***UPDATE*** The U14AA's will be heading to Moncton to compete in the Eastern Canadian Championships after the 2nd place team announced that they could not attend.
The U16AA-Sarjeant team finished fourth overall when they stunned the Ottawa Ice with a 4 goal outburst in the final three and half minutes of play for a 5-3 come from behind win. Nadia Mattucci started the comeback when she scored with 3:31 remaining on the clock to make the score 3-2 before Megan Hutchinson tied the score 33 seconds later. Jada Laliberte netted her second goal of the game 48 seconds later to give the Lightning their first lead of the game before Nicole Cannata added an insurance marker with 1:28 remaining to secure the win and finish fourth overall in the Province.
The U19AA-Sandercock team opened the tournament with a solid team effort but were on the wrong end of a 5-4 score at the end of their game with Nepean who went undefeated during round robin play. The Lightning continued their solid play with a 5-3 victory over Cambridge; followed by a 4-4 tie with St Clements; and then a 5-1 victory over London Lynx. However, the team knew that they would likely need a win or a tie in their remaining two games to have a chance at advancing. Unfortunately they were facing the top two teams in the Province in Guelph and Waterloo. Facing Guelph, the team got off to a good start emerging from the fist period with a 3-2 lead which they extended to 4-2 early in the second period. However, Guelph showed why they are one of the top teams when they responded with 4 unanswered goals for a 6-4 victory and eventually emerge as the gold medalists. The Lightning still had a slim chance should they manage to defeat Waterloo in their final Round Robin game but would also need Ottawa to at least tie Pickering. The Lightning kept pace with Waterloo for the better part of the first period before Waterloo popped a couple of late goals to take a 3-1 lead into the final frame. Waterloo then came out and got another couple of quick goals to open the 2nd period and the Bolts never really recovered and got into penalty problems late in the game. Still a great effort to finish with a 2 wins, 3 loss, 1 tie record and fifth overall.
In other ringette action, the Lightning U9-Applebaum team finished their regular season schedule on a high note defeating the Markham Bears 5-3 thanks to a strong goaltending debut by Vanessa 'Cookie' Liu. Aaliyah Natsheh was the offensive workhorse netting a natural hat trick with Kamalini Vundemodalu and Natalie Applebaum scoring the other goals. Excellent team support came from Nicole Pham, Brynna King, Hannah Weaver, Isabel Ianni, Vanessa Kernohan and Carlyn Joy. The team hopes to continue their solid team play as they head to the regional championships at the end of March.
The U10 Harling team battled their first place counterparts in Oshawa in a very quick paced game, but came up on the short end of an 8-6 score. Alexia Himelfarb and Taryn Joy did all the scoring for the Lightning in this one netting a hat trick each.
The U12-Mews team played a home-and-home series with the Oshawa Storm dropping the opener in Oshawa 7-1. Although the Lightning managed plenty of shots on net, the Oshawa goaltender was equal to the task on this particular day. Playing at home in the rematch, the Lightning responded with a strong team performance and dug deep for an even stronger finishing kick and an 8-6 win. Defense player Abigayle Perry jumped up with the offense on several occasions and was rewarded with a hat trick. Caelynn Wiseman added a pair of goals with Julia Mews, Alexa Togneri and Matangy Kanesamoorthy netting the others.
The U14A-West team skated to a 2-2 tie to finish their regular season before heading off to the Provincial A Championships starting March 19 in Newmarket. The U14-Giordan team dropped a 5-1 decision to the Whitby Wild.
Having clinched first place overall in league play at the end of February, the U16A-McKnight team finished their regular season with a 6-2 loss to the Whitby Wild. The U16B-Thompson team dropped a 4-1 decision to Cambridge in their season finally.
The U19A-File team clinched top spot in the standings earlier this month but dropped a 5-2 decision to the Ayr Ice Cats in their season final. The OpenB-Todd team downed the Ajax Shooting Stars 5-2 when Nicole Morris and Tara Mattucci both netted a pair of goals with Veronica Peacock rounding out the scoring for the Lightning. The Lightning followed up with a 5-3 victory over Whitby with Megan Todd leading the offense with a pair of goals.