Markham U19A wins Gold - Lots of Pictures UPDATED !!
Submitted By harleychow on Monday, March 20, 2017
Markham U19A wins Gold at Ontario A Provincial Championships in Pickering.
Read the rest of the article!! Lots of pics !!!
Play by Play article written by Les White
The Markham Bears U19A ringette team played this weekend at the 2017 Ontario Provincial Championships hosted in Pickering in the McCarthy division. On the first day of competition the team played a tough London team to a 1-1 tie and then went on to beat Oshawa to open the tournament with a great start.
The next day saw the team beat the host Pickering team 3-1 to stay undefeated. However, that streak ended later that day when an upstart Owen Sound team beat them 4-2.
The third day of competition saw Markham beat Gloucester-Cumberland in a nail biter 2-1 in the morning. Playing their final game of the round robin Markham met the undefeated West Ferris 63'ers (which is North Bay, the home of where ringette was created in 1963) and in a very entertaining, close match eventually losing 3-2 with West Ferris scoring with 40 seconds left to take it.
The team ended up finishing in 2nd place in the round robin and a match against Pickering in the semi final game Sunday morning. In a very defensive, back and forth match both teams got stellar goaltending (shout out to Markham’s goalie Leigh Kennedy) and at the end of regulation time the game was tied 0-0. However 14 seconds into OT Sarah Jacobs roofed a goal sending Markham to a finals match against the same undefeated West Ferris team they lost to the previous day.
Even though they had tired legs playing the finals game 3 hours after the end of their OT victory, the girls were ready and prepared to revenge that defeat. After falling behind 1-0 only 3 minutes into the game the girls put it behind and came out after that goal with a drive and determination to leave it all on the ice. The girls swarmed West Ferris any time they touched the ring and shut down their numerous snipers with their stellar defensive triangle and fore-checking frustrating them time and time again. With 8 minutes left in the game Markham’s Defense Moona Passila took a pass at the blue line, broke in and scored the game-tying goal.
That goal seemed to invigorate the Markham girls even more and 30 seconds later Caleigh Randall picked the perfect time to score her first goal of the tournament on a beautiful pass from Delaney Kennedy and Markham had their first lead of the game and it was only the second time all tournament West Ferris trailed in a game.
From there it just seemed that Markham’s energy continued to surge(lead by a very vocal crowd that had many supporters from Markham in the stands) and West Ferris had no answer to Markham’s play. With 90 seconds left Melanie Taylor gave the Bears a 3-1 lead and that is how the game ended.
Markham had won their first Ontario Provincial Championship in their 35 year history(the association started in 1982).
Special shout out to all the girls – Leigh Kennedy, Alex Serroul, Azra Amiri, Francesca Campisi, Allison Gravelle, Mercia Willits, Alana White, Jazlyn Salema, Moona Passila, Caleigh Randall, Sarah Jacobs, Caroline Sweeney, Delaney Kennedy, Alanna Candappa and Melanie Taylor along with Head coach Stu Taylor, assistants Les White, Liza Sweeney, Ed Kennedy and team manager Cheryl Kennedy for their dedication, drive, and performance throughout the 2016-17 season and bringing the town of Markham this great achievement.
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