Historic Win for U14AA Lightning at ECRC
The road to a bronze medal at the Eastern Canadian Ringette Championships held in Moncton, New Brunswick recently was quite the ride for Richmond Hill’s U14AA Lightning team. The team didn’t quite get the start they wanted when they dropped a 4-2 decision to the eventual gold medalists New Brunswick 1 team in Thursday’s opener. However, things looked a lot better when they downed the Host team from Moncton 8-1 in an early Friday morning affair, and then followed with a 7-2 decision over the Nova Scotia 2 team in the afternoon.
The Lightning still had a chance of advancing to the semi-finals with their final round robin match against Quebec City 1 who needed the win just as much as the Lightning in order to keep their chances of advancing alive. The Lightning carried a 3-1 lead into the final frame, but the QC1 team came back to tie the game at 3-3. The tie, coupled with a win by the QC1 team in their final round robin match resulted in a mini tie-breaker game between these same two squads to determine which team would advance to the semi finals.
In the mini-game, the Lightning came out strong and skated to a 4-0 win to advance to a semi-final match against an undefeated (3-0-1) New Brunswick 2 team. The NB2 team took the semi-final match 4-0 to relegate the Lightning to the Bronze medal match against another Ontario team, the London Lynx. The Lightning went into the bronze medal match looking to avenge a 4-2 loss incurred at the hands of the same London Lynx team in a semi-final at the Ontario Provincial Championships a couple of weeks earlier.
The Eastern Championship bronze medal final was a close, tight checking affair that limited each other’s scoring opportunities with the Lightning’s Julia Roman being the only player to find the back of the net late in the first period. That goal held up for the rest of the game in what turned out to be a real nail-biter for the fans and players alike.
The Bronze medal became the first medal for any Richmond Hill team competing at the Eastern Championships. Three Lightning players finished in the top ten in scoring with Julia Roman (7 goals, 3 assists) and Kate Vandeloo (4G, 6A) leading the way with 10 points each, followed closely by Mackenzie Snelgrove (5G, 3A) with 8. The team finished second in scoring and fourth in goals against with Elena Gamm and Victoria Gosio providing strong goaltending throughout with Elena Gamm blocking all 28 shots she faced in posting a shutout win over London in the bronze medal final.
The Lightning also had lots of fun while competing in the skills competition where they finished 1st in precision shooting, 2nd in Team play (3vs1 + goalie) and 3rd in Team relay.
Head Coach Steve Roman; and Assistant Coaches, Greg Turner, Charles Snelgrove, Devin Branch Susan Gamm, Claire Wickens and Sarah Gelfand are very proud of the player’s development throughout the season and the accomplishments they have achieved. Representing both Richmond Hill and Ontario at this year’s 2015 Eastern Championships were: Amy Bradford, Simone Branch, Elena Gamm, Chloe Gelfand, Emily Gomes-Szoke, Victoria Gosio, Emily Lazenby, Bryanna Lee, Brianne McGrath, Julia Roman, Kyra Smelser, Mackenzie Snelgrove, Kate Vandeloo, Sarah Wang, and Haley Wickens.
Congratulations Lightning!