January 11, 2015
1723
The Kincardine Montgomery Ford Midget girls "C" team had a busy and rewarding weekend, bringing home the championship banner from the 2015 “Pink on the Rink” South Huron tournament held in the Exeter/Hensall/Zurich area.
There were a few road block to overcome, as the team was supposed to play Friday morning but Mother Nature set up a powerful defence by sending a two- to three-day storm and closing most local major highways including Highways 21, 86 and 9.
With lots of phone calls and texting, the Ford girls' first game was re-scheduled to Friday night, and the team kept hoping to get out of Kincardine. The roads opened by 11 a.m., and the team organized a 10-vehicle convoy, leaving the Davidson Centre and heading to Zurich for a 2:30 p.m. game against Lambton Shores.
When the convoy arrived in Zurich, we discovered that the roads had all re-closed behind us – we were lucky to get away and have a safe arrival.
The Christmas break and lack of practices due to bad weather, certainly showed up on the first game. The tournament had only four teams in the “C” division, including the Kincardine Kinucks, Lambton Shores, the BCH Ice Docs and BAD Girls.
Kincardine finished its first game with a 4-2 loss, giving an open-net goal on the fourth one scored against. The girls then played the re-scheduled game against BCH, bringing up their effort more and winning, 3-0.
The team was forced to stay overnight in Exeter and it was like a slumber party or a camping trip!
Saturday morning, Kincardine was in Exeter playing the BAD Girls team. This was another close nail-biter, but the Ford girls took a 2-1 victory, finishing first in their group pool overall.
This meant they went on to play the BAD girls again at 3:30 p.m.
Well, this time the girls came out flying, to win 5-1, putting them in the final championship game Sunday at the Huron Park Arena. And that meant staying overnight again because the roads were in such poor condition.
Sunday morning, the Kinucks were warming up to play BCH in the final. This was a tight, fast three periods of exciting hockey and became very emotional.
After two scoreless periods, the Ford girls took the lead when, with only 3:38 remaining, Rainor Kuz scored the only goal and the game-winner. BCH pulled its goalie and put the pressure on, making things so tense this would not have been a good game to try to quit smoking!
The final score was 1-0 for Kincardine and the girls all skated onto the ice like the World Junior hockey team did after winning the gold medal. They piled on goalie Sofia Tomaini who was celebrating the shut-out and the championship win!
Both teams shook hands and then lined up for the awards ceremony, receiving the “Pink on the Rink” banners and team medals.
This was a nice finish to the weekend, especially when the Kinucks team won this same tournament in 2013!
The team members and coaching staff safely returned home for a quiet night in their own homes!
Related Stories
No related stories.