Silver for U19B Lightning in Whitby
It had been three weeks since the CORL League leading U19B Lightning team last played a game going into the Whitby Wild Ringette Tournament; however it didn’t take them very long to catch their stride as they opened the tourney with an 8-1 decision over the Markham Bears.
Their next match proved to be a much tougher assignment as they were pitted against the NCRRL League leading Arnprior Devils. The first five minutes of the game saw the ice in the Lightning end get substantially scrapped up while the Devils zone remained pristine. However, the Lightning’s first venture into the Devils zone was on the power play and resulted in a 1-0 lead when Jocelyn Langlois wristed a hard shot past the Devil’s goaltender with the Lightning’s first shot on net. The Devils stormed back into the Lightning zone on the ensuing free pass and tied the score 20 seconds later. The Lightning continued to struggle to get any offense going until they finally penetrated the Devils zone on another power play and took a 2-1 lead before the end of the half on only their third shot on net. Danielle Pelletier made a great individual effort to elude a Devil defender and then surprised the Devils Goaltender with a quick release. The last half saw the Lightning ride the hot goaltending of Alexandra Serroul as they pulled off a 2-1 win despite the lopsided play. The Lightning played well at both ends of the rink in their final round robin game against a solid Forest Extreme team in skating away with a 6-3 win to finish first in the loop and book their spot in the gold medal match and a rematch with Arnprior.
The final saw the Lightning come out strong offensively where they jumped into a 2-0 lead on goals by Mickayla Bistrovich and Amy Thompson in the first five minutes of play, The Devils then got their offense going, scoring the next 3 goals to take the lead with 1:51 remaining in the half; however the Lightning’s Vivian Araujo scored a goal worthy of the highlight reel a mere 30 seconds later to send the teams into the final frame tied at 3. The two teams treated the spectators to a very entertaining final that went right down to the wire; but unfortunately someone has to come out on top and on this day the Devils relegated the Lightning as silver medalists with a 6-4 (EN) decision.
Also playing in Whitby, the U19A-West Lightning team found themselves in a tough loop where they finished third after posting a 2 win, 1 loss, and 1 tie record. Similarly, the U16A-West/Lee Lightning team went 2-1-1 to fall just out of the medal competition.
In league play the U10-Ianni team won a pair of road games besting Ajax 6-4 and Mississauga 10-8.
Click here to see full schedule and results.