The Peewee LL Wolverines added to their medal count for the
season after participating in the Stoney Creek Sweethearts tournament February
2nd – 4th.
The Wolverines first game of the tournament would be against Burlington – Grey. Jadyn Dolbeck would open the scoring less than a minute into the contest to get the Wolverines thinking tournament hockey. Rowyn Burns would add another only five minutes later with an assist to Teagan Vinke. Olivia Burns would find the back of the net late in the second period with a booming slap shot from the point that was deflected and went over the sprawling goalie! The Wolverines signature defence and goaltending would close the door as they would open the tournament with a 3-0 shutout victory. Player of the game was awarded to Sophie Shantz.
The second game of the tournament had the Wolverines squaring off against host Stoney Creek 2. The Sabres would open the scoring midway through the first, but the Wolverines would not be fazed as Teagan Vinke would bury the puck early in the second period with assist to Charlee Harding to even the score at 1-1. The host team would resort to some very unsportsmanlike play near the end of regulation, however, the Wolverines were not able to capitalize and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. Player of the game was awarded to Charlee Harding.
The Wolverines would finish round robin play in their pool with a re-match against Burlington – Orange. This Burlington team had eliminated the Wolverines in the semi-finals of another tournament earlier in the season and the Wolverines were looking to get revenge. The Wolverines would come out firing on all cylinders and Faith Appleton would score less than a minute into the game with a nicely placed wrister to make it 1-0. Olivia Burns would then go for a skate after picking up the puck deep by the Wolverines net and go end-to-end before deking out the Burlington netminder before the end of the first period. Faith would show she wasn’t done for the day when she added another midway thru the 2nd period with an assist to Claire Weinacht…and then Faith added another early in the third period to complete the hat trick! The Wolverines defence would go into shutdown mode from there with good physical coverage in front of their netminder with honorable mentions to Emily Friendorf, Aleah Laverty, Lauryn Porchak and Devin Chilvers for their efforts. Burlington would however break the shutout bid early in the 3rd, but the Wolverines would still claim 1st place in the Pool with a 4-1 win. Player of the game was awarded to Olivia Burns.
In the semi-final, the Wolverines would draw the second place team from the other pool - Lakeshore Lightning – Blue. The Wolverines would surrender the first goal of the contest midway thru the 1st period before bouncing back only a couple minutes later with a goal by Jadyn Dolbeck (assist to Rowyn Burns) to even up the score. Jadyn would add her second of the game late in the second period (assists by Emmie Fronchak and Maddy Adam). Teagan Vinke would be awarded a penalty shot after being taken down hard into the boards on a partial breakaway…Olivia Burns would have to take the penalty shot due to injury and she made it count! Teagan would however bounce back quickly and added to the goal tally early in the 3rd period with assists to Emma Goodwin and Charlee Harding. Faith would ice the cake with another late in the 3rd (assist to Maddy Adam) as the Wolverines punched their ticket to the Final with a 5-2 victory! Player of the game was awarded to Emma Goodwin.
The Finals would have two familiar foes doing battle as Burlington – Orange was able to knock off the first place team from the other pool, Stoney Creek 1 in their semi-final match up. The Wolverines would open the scoring with an unassisted goal by Claire Weinacht on the opening shift. Teagan Vinke would make the score 2-0 midway thru the 2nd period with assists to Aleah Laverty and Claire Weinacht. Goaltender Kasey Livingstone would have to keep up her tournament acrobatics to keep the Burlington team off the board for most of the game. Burlington would however break the shutout bid with just three minutes remaining in an effort to make it interesting; however the Wolverines would go into full blown shutdown mode for the remainder to claim the 2-1 victory! Player of the game was awarded to Emmie Fronchak.
Goaltender Kasey was asked to accept the Stoney Creek Sweethearts Championship trophy that will be proudly displayed at Wilmot Recreation Complex and all the players and staff received their gold medals.
The coaches are extremely proud of the team’s commitment and effort so far this season as it really has shown off during tournament play against teams from other centers. In the four tournaments they have participated in they have a semi-final appearance, one silver medal and two gold medals to show for it!!
By: Rick Livingstone