After suffering through another long day and waiting to play in the final game of the season (similar to last year), tensions and expectations were high and the nerves started showing through. Some of the girls were pretty anxious and Coaches Al and Dana did their best to calm the girls down and prepare them for this moment. Before we knew it the pre-game skate was over and it was time to drop the puck. No sooner had the play started and the Hawks had the play deep in Westman territory. Barely had 30 seconds elapsed from the game clock when Brooklyn Major fed Captain Katie on the blue line who unloaded a shot on net that bounced off of Sage's leg, beside the net, and in the back of the goal. This fired up the crowd who came out in full force to support the local team. This pretty much set the tone for the game, and although there weren't any more goals lighting up the lamp, the shots on goal were a very unbalanced 11-2, after one period of play.  The second period saw a little bit a let down in the pace of the game, but before long Janelle found the back of the net with her own, with assists from Brooklyn Platt and Mackenzie Heide, putting the host team up 2-0. Six minutes later Sage notched her second of the game, beating the Westman goalie, slipping the puck between the pads. Drawing the assists on the goal were Brooklyn Major, her second helper on the night, as well as linemate Alyssa Alderson. Again the shots heavily favoured the Hawks as they took a healthy 3-0 lead into the third frame.  The third period found the Hawks as determined as the first, and although they only mananged to squeeze one more past the Westman tender, the girls made sure that there would be no mistake that they would have to be the team to beat.  At the 14:31 mark of the third, Avery found herself on a partial break when she was fed a beautiful pass from Brooklyn Platt, and made no mistake beating the Westman goalie with a wrist shot on the glove side.  That play was all started with a great, crisp first pass out of our own end by Courtney Allison. As always, Corinne stood tall turning away all 12 shots that she faced, earning her most remarkable 8th shutout of the season, dropping her GAA to very stingy .83 on the season. The Hawks continued to dominate in every aspect of the game, not taking any chances and playing hard until crowd's chant of "...5., 4, 3, 2, 1" could be heard throughout the building. And then there were cheers! Soaking it all in, watching the girls congratulate each other, receive their gold medals, and be presented with the banner, the coaches, the parents, the siblings, the grandparents, the friends looked on, proud of each of these girls. The hard work, the sweat, the determination, the practices, showcases...everything; it culminates in this, the glorious moment when they stand with their teammates at the top.  Congratulations to the Pembina Valley Female Bantam AAA Hawks version 2013/2014. You made us all proud, repeating as provincial champions once again.  Thanks so much to Manager Marcy, we can't say enough about all the hard work you've done in the past three years as manager. The next year's position-holder has some awfully big shoes to fill. Thanks so much to Coach Dana Bell and Coach Allan Couling. Your tireless planning, driving, putting up with the girls antics (see pictures of cake in the face, etc) and most of all, your vision, your wisdom, and your passion. You two are a cut above. You have set the bar high, and we hope you continue to sow your knowledge of hockey to more students of the game.  Thanks also goes out to the parents for being such a gracious bunch, for making this experience so rewarding. Hats off to you all!   (On a side note, it will take a few days to wade through the 1000+ photos of these last two days, but keep checking, I wll update the photo gallery as soon as I can)

 

 

Sunday morning, the Pembina Valley girls were up bright and early to meet the Eastman Selects in the semi final round. Fresh off of a victory the day before, the Hawks were determined to repeat their performance. Similar to their previous game, on the second shift of the game, Janelle got the Hawks on the board with an assist from Brooklyn Platt, and although she didn't get credit for it, Hannah also drew an assist.  That was the only score after one period of play. In keeping with the early period scoring tendency, Brooklyn Platt continued her hot hand by scoring 20 seconds into the second period, when after taking a shot off of her stomach, she banged home the loose puck at her feet. On another scramble on front of the net, later in the third, Stephanie managed to slap at the puck while falling, making the score 3-0 after two periods of play. The third period saw another early goal, this time against the Hawks, as a neutral zone turnover led to a broken play and fortunate goal for the visiting Selects. Before the game ended though, Brooklyn Platt assured the victory with her second of the game, on a wrap around on the short side sliding it through the goaltender's pads, to make the final 4-1, assuring the Hawks a chance to defend their provincial title. After a heated double overtime battle between Yellowhead and Westman, Westman booked a date in the finals this evening. Good luck Hawks, you've worked hard all year to get to this point.  You have made all of us parents and fans proud. One more game to go...

 

 

Saturday evening all the teams were treated to a terrific evening of fantastic food and great entertainment. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the pasta supper, and creative sundae bar! The evening was capped off with a hilarious hypnotist act, which was made all the more fun with Pembina Valley members Toni Conrad and the hypnotic-experienced, Daniel Sanders, who, between the two, provided more than a few laughs. Kudos to Manager and organizer extraordinaire, Marcy Platt who made the evening a rousing success for everyone!

 

 

Game two featured the Hawks taking on the Eastman Selects. Taking nothing for granted, the Hawks came out strong, right out of the gate. One minute and six seconds into the first period, Sage netted the first of what would be four goals on the night. Drawing assists on the first goal were Brook R and Mackenzie. Nearly 5 minutes later, Brooklyn Platt continued her strong tournament, after another assist by Mackenzie. The second period saw only one goal, Sage's second, on a feed from Alyssa. In the third, the Hawks continued pressing and were rewarded with three more goals. At the 18:27 mark, Sage completed the hat trick with Mackenzie's third assist of the game.  Just over a minute later Avery got into the action, scoring her first of the game with an assist from yet another defenseman, this time from Courtney.  With just under two minutes left in the game, Sage completed the best game of her AAA career with her fourth market of the game. Te assists on Sage's fourth goal came from Alyssa and yet another from Mackenzie. The final score - 6-0. 

 

 

Game one is in the books for the Pembina Valley Female Bantam AAA Hawks. The girls came out strong in the first period, completely dominating the play and took a commanding 3-0 lead against the Norman Wild. With the clock at 13:16 Brooklyn Platt opened the scoring with her first of the tournament, drawing an assist from Hannah and Janelle. Five minutes later it was Alyssa's turn to with help from her defensive linemate, Emma. With just over five minutes remaining in the first, Courtney ripped a shot from the blue line that found the back of the net with help from Brooklyn P and Janelle.  The second period however, saw the Hawks come out flat. Perhaps the first was too easy and they thought that this would be a blowout, but Norman had other ideas. Within the first minute, Norman found themselves on the power play and they attacked the Hawks with sustained pressure, and by the time the first two minutes of the game has transpired, the Wild had scored and regained some of their momentum. Just over the half way mark of the second, Norman found the back of the net again, bringing themselves within one goal. The Hawks managed to keep the score at a one goal margin, going into the second intermission. Although the play in the third was still a little scrambled, Pembina Valley came out strong and within 30 seconds of the initial puck drop, Hannah had found the back of the net to restore the two goal lead, with the help of Brooklyn Platt's second assist and third point of the game. From there the Hawks kept up the presssure, and pushed back every attempt made by their opponent. Were it not for a few great shots ringing off the iron, the score could have easily been 7-2, instead the final was 4-2.  This will be our girls' only game of the day, as the banquet is held this evening. Game time tomorrow is 12:00 at the Carman Recreation Centre.

 

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Game 4, the final game of the showcase gave the Hawks a chance to walk away from the tournament with four straight wins, as the Hawks faced off against the Eastman Selects, whom they hadn't faced since the first game of the season. The first goal of the game came off the stick of one of the Selects, which put the pressure on our girls early. The young Hawks teams responded by pressuring Eastman with some aggresive forechecking. This paid dividends as jsut 36 seconds left in the first period Brook Major got the Hawks on the board after some excellent work in the corner by Avery Bridges. Avery slid the puck over to Brook M, in the low slot, who made no mistake in finding the back of the net. Drawing the assist on the play was Toni Conrad. Having a chance to review the game plan in the first intermission, the Hawks seemed to find their stride in the second frame, when Brooklyn Platt netted yet another goal after some nice work by Janelle to find her in the clear. Then at the 14:50 mark of the second period, and while short-handed Katie Heppner rushed the puck up ice, deked through the last defender and made a move that fooled the goaltender, allowing her to slide the puck into the yawning cage, putting the Hawks up by two.  In the third period, the girls were on a mission. There was going to be no letting up on the gas, as in the previous game versus the Twins.  Brooklyn Major was fed a saucer pass from Kate, while in stride, and she was off to the races. Springing free, Major made no mistake, burying her second goal of the game, and the rout was on. With 6:24 left on the clock, Mackenzie let a slapshot go from the point, which Alyssa deflected, using her great eye/hand coordination, past the Selects netminder for the Hawks' fifth goal of the game. Less than a minute after that Courtney ripped a shot from the blue line, through a couple of screens for the Hawks sixth goal of the game, capping off a dominating performance from the whole Pembina Valley squad.   

 

Game 3 gave the girls to seek revenge on the only team that has managed to beat the Hawks in past two seasons, the Fort Garry Twins. The Hawks were a determined bunch, not wanting to see the same result as the last time these two teams met. In many instances this year, the girls have been a little slow out of the gate, often applying pressure, but not yeilding the results on the scoreboard. In this game however, the Hawks exploded for three unanswered goals, with markers from Stephanie Sanders, Brooklyn Major and Brooklyn Platt, who continued her hot hand. Assists on the goals were Emma, Alyssa and Sage.  The second period saw a lot of back and forth action, but no points for either team. Interesting fact - throughout this season, the Hawks had previously outscored their opponents 23-2 in the third period. It came as quite a shock then, when the Twins rallied late in the third period to make it closer than the time of possession would indicate. Thankfully Stephanie managed to notch her second goal of the game, from a nice feed from Toni Conrad, midway through the third to make sure the Twins were kept at bay. In typical Hawks fashion, they led in the shots on goal differential, however this one was close at 28-24. Final score was 4-2.

 

Game 2  pitted the Hawks against their arch rivals, the Central Plains Capitals. Looking to avenge a 0-0 tie from last Sunday, emotions were high, which was likely the reason for the number of penalties that were called in this game. The girls battled hard for 60 minutes, and the battles for the puck were intense.  On one of the early penalty kills, a wristshot front one of the Capitals defenseman handcuffed Corinne and bounced over her shoulders and into the back of the net, putting the Hawks on notice that they had no plans of another shutout. This seemed to ignite a flame under the Hawks as they launched a furious attack, led by Brooklyn Platt.  On the first goal, at the 12:06 mark of the first period, Brooklyn raced down the right side and wristed a shot past the Caps' tender.  After taking turns sending each other on alternating power plays, Platt once again found herself on the scoresheet when on the first shift of the second periiod, she pounced on a loose puck just outside the crease breaking the tie. Six minutes later Alyssa's hard forechecking was rewarded with posession of the puck who sent a crisp pass to Janelle who made no mistake, wiring a quick wrist shot, resulting in another goal.  Near the midway point of the third period, Sage tipped in s point shot from Mackenzie, resulting in a 4-1 score.  Brooklyn Platt drew the helper.  To cap off a season-high game, Brooklyn Platt notched her third goal and fourth point of the game when she beat the goaltender again, after a passing combination from Sage and Brook Major. Despite eight powerplay opportunities, the Capitals could not manage another goal on Corinne, after their lucky break in the first.  The game ended with 17 minor penalties.

 

 

Game 1 saw the Hawks take on the Interlake Ice at the MTS Iceplex. The Hawks looked to establish the pace early and set the tone for the tournament. The first period was saw the Hawks apply some early pressure but the scoresheet was left blank.  The second period belonged to the Hawks, as they kept pressuring the Ice, putting them back on their heels.  Janelle Delaquis got the Hawks on the board at the 12:00 mark of the second when she found the back of the net, with Alyssa Alderson drawing the assist.  The third period was similar to the second where Pembina Valley dictated the play, out chancing the opposition in all aspects.  Janelle found the back of the net again, when she saw a juicy rebound at the side of the net. Toni Conrad was credited with the assist. Putting the game away, Brooklyn Major, with 1:42 left on the clock, beat the Interlake goaltender after passes from Sage McElroy-Scott. The final score was 3-0, with Corinne ending up with another shutout, with the Hawks out shooting Interlake 31-11.  

 

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Monday, Dec 23rd saw the Bantam Hawks take on the Old Timers, in a game otherwise known as Fathers vs Daughters. The Fathers were thankful that a few brothers and friends showed up to help pick up the pace of the game. Special mention goes out the goalies, Avery Bridges and Nathan Sanders, both of whom are much better forwards than goalies, no matter how well they played in net. As you can see, a great time was had by all! Needless to the say that most of the dads will likely be soaking in a tub somewhere, wondering why they volunteered for this punishment. Thanks to all who attended the scrimmage game, the refs who came out to give the girls every advantage they could think of, for the fans for politely cheering for the guys who "think they still have it", the people who sponsor the defibrillator that we thankfully didn't have to use, and for the coaches who organized and "depended" on the support from the girls.  May you have a safe and healthy holiday season. Merry Christmas to you all!

 

 

 

 

 

(Dana demonstrating his cake eating skils)