Mar 15, 2015 | Steve Fogarty | 897 views
Book the Limo, We're Going to the Dance!
With two games in the books, the Nyquil Series was headed to Fergus for a third and final game. With a win or a tie, the Girls of Grand River would make it to the Lower Lakes Final Four.
The Mustang coaches had the girls focused, prepared and ready to play. As such, they would not be denied this day as they took on the hockey killing Flames of Vaughan. The score after the first period remained 0-0 in which the Vaughan goaltender, as she has done all series, made some key saves to give her team a chance.
With three minutes left in the second, Frannie McDangles woke up the scoreboard as she walked out from the corner and bulged twine to put the home team up by 1-0. Less than two minutes later, Jadyn scored her first of the series to make it 2-0 Mustangs.
The 2-0 score would hold up to be the final score as the Mustangs advanced to the Lower Lakes Final Four Tournament in Oshawa. As a parent I am ecstatic that the smartest hockey minds in Bantam B hockey walk my daughters bench. Great job ladies, enjoy the success, you worked hard and earned everything you got.
On a side note, also as a parent I would hope that any coach of my daughter would put the teams best interests first. Knowing full well that they needed a win in regulation to force OT, why the Vaughan coach would not allow any puck pursuit baffles me. Was he more interested in losing with a respectable score on paper rather then trying to win? Lining up four defense and a centre to take the opening draw was cute. Allowing time to tick off the clock instead of entering the offensive zone for the puck was embarrassing. But the tell all was in the third; behind by 2-0, needing a win and nothing changed. Which is the exact reason this series was an ESPN classic, don't play to win, play to make it look good on paper. It's unfortunate, as we played the Flames two times in the regular season (when they were allowed to play hockey) and they are a good team with very talented players. It's too bad they weren't allowed to play hockey and show our fans and theirs of how good they really are.
Late addition - Congrats to our sister team the Peewee BB Mustangs on joining us in Oshawa as they won in OT to make the Lower Lakes Finale as well. Exciting game.