The Saugeen Maitland Midget ‘AA’ Lightning team cut their Christmas holidays short to participate in the Mississauga Christmas Classic Tournament and came home champions.
The Lightning opened the tournament with a 4-1 win over the North York Storm. Taylor MacDonald opened the scoring early with assists going to Madison Davey and Avery Reeves. Neve VanPelt followed up with one of her own on a tip off of Brooke Schroeder’s point shot. Cassidy Mason scored her first of the tournament with helpers from Lexi Smith and Jocelyn Ballantyne. Ballantyne closed out the scoring with an assist going to Smith. Cassidy Mason was named player of the game.
In its second game the Bolts faced the Mississauga Chiefs beating them 4-1. Mason scored first with assists going to Maddie Duncan and Hannah Herman. Mel Nolan followed up soon after, burying one off a rebound from Ballantyne’s shot. Erin Near also earned an assist. The Bolts didn’t let up in the second period with Kelsey Dixon potting one from Reeves and MacDonald. Katie Heath closed out the scoring for the Lightning, showing some nice hands following a breakaway pass from Schroeder and Natalie Nixon. Duncan was awarded the Kewl hat for player of the game.
A win in the third game over Brampton guaranteed the Bolts a spot in the gold medal game on Dec. 29. Despite going down a goal early, the Lightning stormed back with Near scoring on a point shot that ricocheted off a Brampton Canadette defender. Smith scored the game winner with assists going to Davey and Duncan. Kaitlyn Chagnon was solid in net and was named player of the game.
On Dec. 29 the Lightning came ready to play for the gold medal against the Burlington Barracudas. Smith opened the scoring two minutes into the game with a tip-in off a MacDonald point shot. Ballantyne also earned an assist.
Reeves then scored with assists from Herman and VanPelt. Mason and Smith each scored to make it 4-0 before the end of the first period.
Assists were granted to Ballantyne, Duncan and Smith. Smith scored her third in the second period for the hat trick with helpers from Near and Ballantyne.
Nolan finished off the scoring with assists going to Dixon and Ballantyne. The final score was 6-0. Rebecca Ropp stopped all Barracuda attempts to earn the shut-out. Lexi Smith earned player of the game honours.
Check out Saugeen Maitland results at www.saugeenmaitlandlightning.com.
