After a weekend of tough competition and excellent hockey, the 'Country Charm Mennonite Furniture' BANTAM C Girls are the WOAA MAROON DIVISION CHAMPS!
They dug deep and left it all on the ice, as they battled the other 3 top teams in the league for the title.
Game 1 - Friday 9pm vs Mount Forest Rams 
2 - 1 Loss (1 point)
Our girls played an excellent game, and were evenly matched with the Rams.
Jade Gilchrist buried one for the REBELS right off a faceoff from
Tristin Brown at 3:30 in the 1st. However, the celebration didn't last long as not even a minute later, a turnover in our end sent the puck toward the net and the Rams were quick to capitalize and tie it up at 2:55. Unfortunately, another unexpected turnover in the neutral zone caught our defence off guard and the Rams' captain flew down on a breakaway and scored the winning goal at 7:17 in the 2nd. We went for the man advantage for the final 2 minutes of the game, but just couldn't score that tying goal.
Knowing the game was lost on errors, the girls knew that they had to bring their A-Game on Saturday if there would be any hope of a comeback.
Game 2 - Saturday 12pm vs Kincardine Kinucks 2 - 1 WIN (4 points)
With excellent goal tending at either end of the ice, the 1st period went by scoreless. The Kinucks were first on the board at 4:21 in the 2nd, in a scramble at our net ... but
Emily Meuser tied it up with only 10.8 seconds left in the period, with a high shot from the point, assisted by
Jamie Gilchrist.
Jamie and
Jade distracted the Kinucks defence, while
Tristin circled around and flipped the puck up into the net for the winning goal at 10:49 in the 3rd.
Game 3 - Saturday 9pm vs South Bruce Blades 
2 - 1 WIN (4 points)
Being the last game of the round-robin, we knew in advance that we needed at least 2 points to finish in the top 2 and move onto Sunday's Final.
The girls were up for the challenge, and so were the fans. The lucky pom-poms came out, and crowd got loud!
The Blades got a quick goal off a faceoff in our end at 1:37 in the 1st to earn the full point for the period.
The 1 point for the 2nd period went to the REBELS with a nice tip in by
Brooklyn Mole on a shot from
Reese Wilkins and a pass from
Lindsay Elliot at 6:08. WE JUST NEEDED 1 MORE POINT!!!
As MANY other games with the Blades this season have ended in a TIE, it was looking like this result would be no different as the 3rd period ticked away ... (which would give us a total of 2.5 points and 2nd place).
Ashlynn Stephenson made some amazing saves to keep her net clean, and the rest of the team switched to defensive mode for the bottom half of the 3rd. In doing so, our D incurred a very necessary tripping penalty, which they were able to kill off beautifully ... and then we were hit with a controversial call at our net, as the Blades got a little too close to Ashlynn and our girls reacted accordingly at 2:29. The fans got even louder, and the girls battled hard to get control of the puck. Our bench called a time out at 1:21, and we're not sure what was said ... but 9 seconds later,
Emily got a hold of the puck, sent a pass over to
Tristin and she flew down the ice and fired it past the Blades' goalie at 1:21 SHORT-HANDED.
REBELS moved into 1st place and would meet South Bruce again in the FINALS.
CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY vs the BLADES 1 - 0 WIN
This was a fast paced, intense, nail biter of a final. The 1st period went by scoreless and so was the 2nd, until
Tristin picked up the puck in the neutral zone, carried it down the boards "like a wrecking ball" through the Blades' skaters, cut in and shot high far side for a beauty at 1:08.
South Bruce did all they could to tie it up in the 3rd, but Ashlynn and her mighty D weren't about to let that happen. The Blades opted for the man advantage at the end, but couldn't keep control and after several of our near misses on their empty net, the buzzer sounded and the REBELS were the CHAMPIONS!
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The Bantam girls stayed to cheer on the Atom REBELS in their Championship WIN, before celebrating their own.
One more practice and 3 more sleeps ... and the Bantams are off to Toronto for the OWHA PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT.
GO - REBELS - GO
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