Tournament hardware haul for Lightning teams
Gold for three Lightning teams
Our Lightning teams did extremely well in the Richmond Hill Ringette Association's 29th Annual Tournament. It was also quite the weekend for Sarah Ianni, both as a player and a coach. In the Open A (18+) division, Sarah led all scorers with 11 goals and 6 assists as the Lightning went undefeated through round robin action, posting wins over Markham 5-3, Mississauga 5-3, Roseville 8-1, and Elora-Fergus 6-4.
Facing Mississauga in the final, the Lightning jumped out to an early 1-0 lead that was short-lived as the Mustangs jumped ahead 2-1 before the Bolts tied the score by the half. The Bolts started the second half strong scoring twice in the first two minutes; however the Mustangs countered with 2 goals of their own within the next 2 minutes. The Lightning scored a mere 20 seconds later to go ahead 5-4 but again the Mustangs tied the score less than 2 minutes later. The Mustangs ran into some penalty trouble and the Bolts took full advantage scoring three times for an 8-5 win and the gold medal when the final horn sounded.
In the U12 Provincial division, Coach Ianni took her team to the final against a strong opponent from Forest that posted an identical record to the Lightning with 3 win, 0 losses, and 1 tie after round robin play. The tie game was a 3-3 affair between these two teams where the Lightning struck twice in final 5 minutes to erase a 2 goal deficit. In the final, Coach Ianni had the team ready to play as they jumped into a 2-0 lead before the game was one minute old. The Lightning led 4-0 before the 10 minute mark and went on to a 5-0 win with daughter Ava netting a hat trick; Taryn Joy and Kiana Fraser adding singles; and Riley Hamilton earning the shut out in net en route to securing gold!
Gold & Silver for U12 Regional Teams
In the U12 Regional division, it was an all Richmond Hill final after the Lightning’s Harling and McKnight teams both advanced by placing first and second respectively after round robin play. The final was a see-saw battle with the Harling team jumping into a 2-0 lead on goals by Ashelle Adams and Jayden Balilti. The McKnight team struck back with three quick goals by Natasha Willi, Nandini Desaigoudar, and Sydney Nobes to go ahead 3-2. Christina Tsiolis and Alexa Togneri gave the Harling team a 4-3 lead until Jenna Marchand scored for the McKnight team to tie the game before the end of the first half. However, the second half belonged to the Harling team as Togneri added two more goals for a hat trick with Adams and Marlee Wilks adding singles to the final tally as they skated to an 8-4 victory and the gold medal while relegating the McKnight team as silver medalists.
Silver for U16 teams
In the U16A division, the U16-Roman team advanced to the medal round after posting a 3 win, 1 loss record during round robin play. However, to reach the final they had to dispatch of West Ottawa 6-1 in a semi-final match before a rematch in the final with Forest who had handed the Lightning their sole loss 4-6 during RR play. In the final the Lightning gave up an early goal but struck back to take a 2-1 lead by the half on goals by Jacqueline Schulz and Emily Gomez-Szoke. Forest scored the next 3 goals to hold a 4-2 lead which they held until Gomez-Szoke scored with just over 2 minutes left in regulation to bring the Lightning within one. However, Forest buckled down and shut the door over the final two minutes to relegate the Lightning as Silver medalists.
To see how other Lightning teams did in the tournament visit www.scores2stats.com
In a tournament in Ajax, the U16B-Thompson team advanced to the final to play against a strong Ottawa team whom they tied 3-3 during round robin play. Without having a regular goalie, and no call-ups available for the final, forward Jocelyn Langlois, one of the goal scorers in the tie game, donned the goalie pads for the final. Langlois did her part to keep the team in the game, and emerged from the first half tied at 3. But it was not to be as the Lightning dropped a 7-4 decision to finish as silver medalists.