U14 Thunder Roar To Provincial Ringette Silver
Chatham Thunder U14 Provincial Silver Medallists - Submitted Photo
With a season that began in early October the Thunder girls earned the right over the next 5 months to compete in the 2012 Ontario Ringette Provincials by qualifying for the top position in the competition, in the top flight of teams. Playing the 6 other top teams in Ontario meant exciting, close games, and lots of drama.
The Chatham Thunder started off undefeated for the first 2 days with a perfect 4-0 record before dropping the last 2 games of the round robin on Saturday. The 4-2 round robin record meant that Chatham qualified for second place going into the semi-finals and played Timmins Sunday morning. A heart-stopping overtime win got the girls into the final against the season long rival Forest.
Chatham Thunder owned the best Goals Against Average in the top flight thanks to the outstanding play by Sarah Woods, who has been a force in goal all season. In the Championship final against Forest, the Thunder jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and thanks to goaltender Sarah Woods and her defense, Chatham carried the lead most of the game. Forest managed to tie the game up with 6 minutes left in the 2nd half, and won it late in the game on a scrummed play.
Below are results from each of the Chatham Thunder’s games at the Ontario Provincial Ringette Championships:
Game 1 (3-0 W) vs. Timmins: Goals scored by Claire Hedrick, Tristen Stewart and Julia Stephens. Assists were credited to Carys Owen, Vivian Dowdal, Tess Scaman and Tristen Stewart. The girls came out determined to play solid defense but were unsure what to expect from this team. Once the team got warmed up, it was a good effort and a shutout for Sarah Woods.
Game 2 (3-1 W) vs. Gloucester: Goals scored by Jordan Dziver, Carys Owen, Julia Stephens. Assists were credited to Kendra Goodwin, Taylor Dziver and Tristen Stewart. The girls had to adjust their style of play against a physical team, but the Thunder managed to minimize the threat from the bigger Gloucester girls, and outworked them to earn the win.
Game 3 (3-2 W) vs. Kitchener: Goals scored by Vivian Dowdal, Julia Stephens, Brooke Marchand. Assists earned by Jordan Dziver, Tess Scaman and Tristen Stewart. The girls came out confident and skating very well today knowing that they were playing a team that they had a lot of success against during the season. Chatham scored early and carried a 3-1 lead until the last 2 minutes when Kitchener managed to squeeze one in. That’s all they could manage, and Chatham would never see Kitchener again in the tournament.
Game 4 (6-2 W) vs. Cambridge: Goals scored by Carys Owen, Kendra Goodwin, Julia Stephens, Claire Hedrick, Jordan Dziver, Julia Stephens. Helpers credited to Jordan Dziver, Brooke Marchand, Kendra Goodwin, Claire Hedrick, Pyper Copeland (2), Carys Owen (2) and Tristen Stewart (2). Like the Kitchener game earlier in the day, the girls really benefitted from having played Cambridge before, and came out flying, pumping 6 goals past a very surprised goalie. The Thunder managed to produce lots of secondary scoring getting goals and assists from all their forward lines and both defensive pairings. It was a pivotal game for Chatham as it kept the Thunder with Forest as the only undefeated teams at 4-0, and guaranteed the team a semi-final spot.
Game 5 (2-1 L) vs. West Ottawa: Goal scored by Tristen Stewart with assists by Brooke Marchand and Julia Stephens. St. Patrick’s day must not be a lucky one for the Thunder as we came out and couldn’t get lucky at the net this game managing only one goal. West Ottawa, the host team, is a big team with an excellent defensive system that was difficult for the Thunder to break.
Game 6 (4-3 OT L) vs. Forest: All three goals were scored by Tristen Stewart and assisted by Taylor Dziver (2), Vivian Dowdall and Pyper Copeland. Forest had a 3-1 lead into the second half where Chatham tied it up and forced overtime, playing nearly half another period before a goal was scored by Forest, on a rebound, that if it wasn’t March 17th, probably would have gone over the crossbar. During the game, Chatham lost Forward Tess Scaman to a hand injury, Center Carys Owen to wrist injury and Defenseman Brooke Marchand to an elbow injury all for the remainder of the game and overtime. Chatham also lost Forward Claire Hedrick to an ankle injury for the remainder of the tournament.
Game 7 (2-1 OT W) vs. Timmins: Goals scored by Carys Owen and Taylor Dziver. Julia Stephens credited with an assist. Timmins came out very determined with strong defensive play, as their goaltending had been fairly weak during the round robin. The Thunder had to work hard in the offensive end to generate scoring chances and gave up a 1-0 lead mid way through the 1st period. With 26 seconds remaining in the 1st Carys tied it up, and we pushed hard to take the lead in the second half but just couldn’t get many quality scoring chances. Overtime was the result and a nice pass from Julia Stephens to Taylor Dziver allowed Taylor to crash the net and get off a good shot. The Timmins goalie made the initial save and Taylor scooped up the rebound and backhanded it in for the win.
Game 8 (2-1L) vs Forest: Goal scored by Julia Stephens assisted by Rachel Roberts and Tess Scaman. One minute and 23 seconds into the game Julia Stephens scored on a nice wrist shot over the Forest goalies left shoulder while streaking down the right wing. For the rest of the game, the girls desperately tried to add to the lead, while not giving up quality scoring chances, and they did an amazing job until the 8 minute mark of the second half when the ring was turned over in the Thunder’s end and Forest scored. The Thunder remained committed to their game plan and continued to work hard, but fell victim to some bad luck as Forest managed to knock the ring in with just under 2 minutes remaining. The girls furiously tried to tie the game, but ran out of time.
The team would like to thank their sponsor this season, Maple City Electric.
Pictured with their Silver Medals and the 2012 Sportsmanship Award.
Front: Sarah Woods, First Row: Lisa Stewart(Trainer), Kendra Goodwin, Vivian Dowdal, Tess Scaman, Rachel Roberts, Brooke Marchand, Dwayne Roberts(Head Coach), Back Row: Bob Bryant(Coach) Chauntelle Dziver(Manager), Claire Hedrick, Pyper Copeland, Jordan Dziver, Taylor Dziver, Tristen Stewart, Carys Owen, Julia Stephens, Jamie Stewart(Coach) Krista Goodwin(Coach)