Thunder Wear The Golden Ring
The U-10 Chatham Thunder ringette team competed at the 42nd annual Kitchener Golden Ring tournament this past weekend and fought their way through the competition to bring home the gold medal.
The Thunder girls were in fine shape as they took on three teams they had not faced before, showing why Ringette and Chatham, are often mentioned in the same sentence when you travel north.
Goalies Natalie Haggerty and Addison Tope shared net-minding duties and were rock solid between the pipes turning away countless shots from the competition.
Kate Thompson’s play in the gold medal game, paced the Chatham Thunder to the Golden Ring title, as she scored 5 goals, leading Chatham to a 7-5 victory Sunday in the final. MVP of the game Jocalin Hastings was chosen by the visiting Elora-Fergus coach for her high energy play.
On Friday, the Chatham Thunder opened their tournament with a 6-3 win over Elora-Fergus. Scoring the first of ten goals in the tournament only 8 seconds into the game was Kate Thompson, with two apiece from Kaia Rivard and Jocalin Hastings. A single was added by Myah Walters to round out the scoring. Assists were from Tara Wilson with two, and single assists from Thompson, Hastings, Abby Padbury, Grace Norris, and Keira Rivard.
In game two, Chatham dominated Kitchener 6-1. Keira Rivard led the scoring against the host team with a pair of goals and an assist while singles were added by Thompson, Kaia Rivard, Hastings and Walters. Assists set up goals from Kaia Rivard, Walters and Abby-Lynn Janess.
Saturday, Chatham continued to cruise beating West Ferris 12-2. Jocalin Hastings earned her first hat-trick in this game while adding 2 helpers with Thompson also earning a hat-trick with one assist. Janess was on fire with two goals and two helpers, as was Walters with a pair, singles were added by Norris, and Malarie Badder. Assists were also earned by Thompson, Keira Rivard (2), Lily Allado, Allison Newman, Padbury and Maya Haines.
In the gold medal game, Chatham controlled the play, again beating Elora-Fergus, this time by a 7-5 score. It was the Kate Thompson show on Sunday with her frustrating the Elora-Fergus girls by covering ice that they hadn’t touched yet and filling the net with 5 goals. Walters, and Kaia Rivard netted the two singles rounding out the scoring. Assists were from Walters, Allado and Keira Rivard with two. Both goaltenders played their hearts out this weekend and deserve all the praise the Thunder can give them keeping them in all the games.