Apr 14, 2014 | pchalmers | 1505 views
BBMHA Midget Girls bring home silver from Provincial Tournament
April 13, 2014 will be a day that the Blyth Brussels Midget “C”
girls hockey team will remember for the rest of their lives. They did it!!
After regular season play that ended in no losses, the Midget girls began their quest for qualifying for the OWHA Provincial Championship, their goal right from the beginning of the season. With wins against BCH, South Huron and Upper Maitland the team qualified to represent this region at the OWHA Provincial Championships held in Toronto this past weekend. Teams from Novice to Senior where playing including 549 teams, in 31 categories, 51 ice surfaces and 1111 games. With the season’s goal already met in actually qualifying the team had nothing to lose. They went to Toronto to play their game with no expectations.
16 teams qualified provincially to represent the Midget ‘C’ category, broken down in to 4 pools of 4 teams, with the top 2 teams qualifying to the quarter final round. Tournament play began on Friday afternoon against the very fast and skilled Thessalon Lions team. A consistent team effort paid off with a 2-0 win. Both goals were scored by Ashley Higgins. Later that same night BBMHA would play the Carleton Place Cyclones. Still feeling the effects of the earlier game, this one ended in a 1-1 tie. Scoring for the home team was Higgins from Jessica Thompson.
Saturday afternoon would see the final game of round robin play with a game against the Ennismore Eagles. This team was tough, but the Crusaders stayed on the game plan, coming out with 2 goals in the second. Scoring came from an unassisted goal from Thompson and Higgins from Thompson. 2 wins and a tie were good enough to take first place in pool C.
The quarter final game 9:00pm Saturday night seen play against the second place team in pool D, the Hearst Ice Cat’s. This was a very skilled and determined team. There were many tense moments. This was an excellent hockey game to watch as the goals were scored with less than 5 minutes remaining in the third period. Once again our team was victorious, 2-0, ending Hearst’s tournament and sending them on their 11 hour bus trip home. Goals in this game were scored by Emily Mitchell from Thompson and Mackenzie Nesbitt from Shelby Hinchberger and Higgins.
With this win BBMHA was guaranteed 2 games on Sunday. The morning game would determine whether the girls would be playing for gold or bronze. The Lambeth Lancers would be the opposition for this 9:45 game. Again scoring didn’t begin until well into the second period when Nesbitt would hit the mark assisted by Emma Strome and Hinchberger. The third would see the scoreboard light up 2 more times by goals from Kathryn Chalmers from Nesbitt and an unassisted goal by Higgins.
With this win, the team was guaranteed a metal. With no expectations entering this tournament, the team was ecstatic. The gold medal game would see us play once again the Thessalon Lion’s. Their great skill and speed would prove too much for the tired and battered up Crusaders as Thessalon were successful in being crowned provincial champions in the 3-0 win.
This BBMHA Midget girls team didn’t lose the gold medal they won the silver. Excellent play throughout the tournament is all that a coaching staff can ask for and this team did it. They were VERY proud to be crowned the Silver Medalists in the Midget ‘C’ category, making them the second best team in all of Ontario. An equally proud moment came when the BBMHA captain, Jessica Thompson approached the Thessalon team to have a group photo of both teams. Intermingled together both teams stood proudly with their metals, arms around strangers who they had lost a hard fought battle to. They not only made us proud of their silver metal win, but more importantly proud of their character as individuals, showing true sportsmanship, excellent representatives of our organization, town and region. This was an amazing end to and extraordinary season.