Feb 24, 2019 | Warren Wilcox | 572 views
Powerplay goals lead Rebel B's to OWHA tie
There were no surprises in the opening tilt between the Kincardine Kinucks and the Team Tedford Remax Rebel midget B girls on Saturday in Markdale.
In the first of four qualifying games to see who goes to the provincial championships April 5-7, the hometown Rebels came out with the intent to send a message to the Kinucks. The Reb's had all lines firing and took it to the Kinucks for the better part of the first frame. After three or four early chances, the Rebels went on the powerplay with a Kinuck defender taking a tripping penalty under pressure.
The line of Natalie Franks, Jade Gilchrist and Reese Wilkins dominated play down low and continually fed the defence of Kenna McKee and Aubrey Urbshott. With just over a minute left in the penalty, Reese won a battle in the corner to the right of the Kincardine net. She dished back to the point where Kenna Mckee fired a shot through traffic and Nat pounced on the rebound depositing the puck putting us up 1-0!
The Kinucks reeled under the pressure of line after line of Rebel forechecking. As it happens so often in sport though, momentum shifts and with three quarters of the period gone, the Rebs were forced to kill off a Kincardine power play. They did so as Rachel Mallette, Bronte Frook and Hunter Moffatt all played strong in order to defend short handed.
After the successful penalty kill though, the home squad found themselves on their heals and needed some strong goal play from Ashlynn Stephenson to get them through the rest of the period.
Kincardine continued their assault into the second and tied it up at the 8:25 mark on a scramble after a failed clearing attempt. Shortly afterward, the Kinucks surged ahead on a tic tac toe play that ended with a wide open winger tapping in a shot past a helpless Stephenson.
Another Kinucks powerplay followed the go ahead goal and the Rebels appeared to lose the swagger they held for most of the first period altogether! The Rebels penalty kill once again rose to the occasion as Katelynn Lavergne, Grace Kivell and Lindsay Elliot turned down all challenges.
The intermission allowed both teams to come out hard in the third and a lot of the play focussed on the neutral zone as each team created turnovers to lead to offensive opportunities. With just under six minutes left in the game the Rebels took another penalty and once again, the killers shone to thwart a couple offensive surges from the visitors. Wilkins and Franks with Morgan Moran and Lindsay Elliot took the first half while Katelynn Lavergne and Joren Wilcox took the back end and even created an offensive chance of their own!
It wasn't going to be all about the strong Rebel penalty kill today though, with 3:29 left Kincardine took an untimely interference penalty and the power play would get another crack at tying this game. The Kinucks held their own for the first minute, but as pressure mounted you could almost feel the inevitable was coming!
At the 1:58 mark it did! A failed attempt to get the puck past our defence led to Kenna McKee shooting on target and with Michaela Sadler missing on the first rebound attempt, Rachel Mallette calmly pulled the puck back to the right of the keeper and chipped it in to earn the Reb's their first point on the road to provincials!
Today the team heads out to start their semi final round with Twin Centre. Game time is 4:30pm in Wellesley.
Good luck to Team Tedford!