The Grand River Mustangs Novice B girls hockey team went to Ottawa this past weekend to compete in the OWHA Provincial Championship tournament. All the best teams in the province were there to compete and not many people felt the Mustangs had hopes at a medal. The girls were hungry to come out and show everyone how competitive they could be. All of the girls played hard and as a team they left Ottawa as bronze medal champions!!!
The Mustangs went on to meet a strong team from Sudbury in the quarterfinals on Saturday night. Mackenzie Renaud opened the scoring in the first period with an assist from Keira Healey. The girls were then trailing 2-1 in the third period when Sydney Healey tied it at 2-2 with an assist from Olivia Kosempel. Sudbury managed to take the lead again only 2 minutes later. Mustangs parents were getting nervous but Sydney Healey managed to tie the game again with only 3 minutes left in the third period. Tied at 3-3, the game went into overtime. It took late into double overtime before Sydney Healey was able to finally beat the Sudbury goalie and send the Mustangs to the semi-finals with a 4-3 win.
On Sunday morning, the Mustangs took on the Windsor Wildcats in the semi-final game. Again it was a very close game but the defence for the Windsor team proved to be a little too much for the Mustang girls. Windsor beat the Mustangs 3-2 to advance to the championship game. Olivia Kosempel and Sydney Healey each scored one goal for the Mustangs. Sydney Healey added one assist in the effort.
On Sunday afternoon, the girls took on the London Devilettes to battle it out for the bronze medal. It looked pretty bleak for the Mustangs as the London team jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and dominated the game with strong offensive play. The Mustangs began to claw back into the game with a goal by Sydney Healey in the second period which was assisted by Ailsa Litchfield and Mackenzie Renaud. They continued to battle back in the second and third period on the strength of 2 goals by Sydney Healey and Carolina Rossi’s first goal of the tournament. With 5 minutes left in the game it was tied 4-4. Sydney Healey managed to score one last time on a brilliant breakaway with only a minute and a half left in the game. Alli Pettifer added an assist for the Mustangs. The girls fought very hard in that last minute to preserve the win and win the bronze medal!