Sabres get revenge on Sudbury Lady Wolves
This was a bit of unfinished business for the Stoney Creek Sabres.
“After the provincials, we wanted to beat them so bad,” said Sabres forward Alexa Vasko, who scored the winning goal in Stoney Creek’s tense 2-1 win over the Ontario champion Sudbury Lady Wolves on Tuesday night. “We don’t ever want to lose to them again.”
The victory left Stoney Creek as one of only two undefeated teams after the first three days of play in the Esso Cup, the women’s national midget hockey championship, at Gateway Ice Centre. They’ll meet Weyburn, the other 3-0 team, on Wednesday night.
There is very little to choose between Ontario’s top two midget teams. In four previous head-to-head meetings this season, each had won twice. But the Lady Wolves have the larger accomplishment so far, winning the Ontario championship two weeks ago with a 3-0 victory over Stoney Creek in the gold-medal game.
“Our plan was to keep it simple,” Vasko said of Tuesday’s emotional matchup. “Get shots, and crash the net because they have a really good goalie.”
Like Stoney Creek, Sudbury has a deep history in female hockey. The Senior A Wolves, with a number of graduates of the midget program in uniform, recently won gold at the first Pan Am Ice Hockey Championships, an official tournament of the International Ice Hockey Federation, in Mexico.
After a tactical, and scoreless, first period, Stoney Creek’s Emily Callaghan broke the ice off a goalmouth scramble but Karli Shell, Sudbury’s leading scorer in the tourney, spun deftly around in the crease and whipped a shot behind Sabres goalie Hannah Miller to tie it at 1-1.
But, with less than a minute to go in the middle frame and Stoney Creek killing a penalty, Vasko sped in all alone to beat Wolves goalie Stephanie Pascal with a perfect laser, upper stick side, for the 2-1 hometown lead heading into the second intermission.
“I knew I had to make her move to the side,” said Vasko, who was later denied a magnificent assist when a Stoney Creek goal was wiped out by goaltender interference.
“I moved to her left, so then I could put it over her right shoulder.”
Twice in the final 20 seconds, Sudbury forced faceoffs in the Stoney Creek end with Pascal removed for an extra attacker, but Stoney Creek won both draws.
Both goalies were terrific and ended up with 23 saves each.
CUP QUIPS: In Tuesday’s early game, the Moncton Rockets (1-2) got their first win of the tournament, beating the Edmonton Thunder, 5-4, with the aid of a hat trick by Faith Steeves and two goals from Brooke
Murphy. Brianne Waterman made 42
saves in the Rockets net. Alexandra Poznifoff, with two, Amy Boucher and Nicole Gorda replied for Edmonton (1-2). … The Weyburn Gold Wings moved to 3-0 by edging Fraser Valley Phanton, 3-2, on Tuesday afternoon. Caitlin Dempsey had a pair of goals and Bailie Bourassa one for the Wings, while Weyburn goalie Jane Kish made 38 saves for the win. Brianna Keats and Mikayla Orgrodniczuk scored for winless Fraser Valley. … Fourth-round games Wednesday feature Moncton against Fraser Valley at noon, Sudbury against Edmonton at 3:30 p.m. and Stoney Creek meeting Weyburn at 7 p.m.