OTTAWA – Sports – It was a good opening day for the Thunder Bay Queens at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincial championships taking place in Ottawa as they were victorious in five of the seven games they played.
The defending provincial midget AA champion Sportop Queens won both of their opening day matches as did the Ontario Power Generation midget A squad while the Taranis Contracting bantam AA side split a pair of contests and the Triad Contracting peewees dropped their first outing.
The midget AA club earned a 4-1 triumph over the St. Catharines Chaos in game 1 and followed that up by edging the Whitby Wolves by a 2-1 margin.
Samantha Strassburger paced the Thunder Bay attack vs. St. Catharines by tallying twice and setting up another.
Bronwyn Bolduc and Drue Ahola also chipped in with singles.
Earning assists in the contest were Allison Ross, Kaley Tienhaara, Natasha Nicholl and Azia Vass.
The Queens held the shots on goal margin by a 31-13 count with Jayde Turcotte picking up the win in net.
In the Whitby tilt, Ross buried the game-winner as she finished off passes from Tienhaara and Farrah Nicholl while Strassburger added the other marker.
Sydney Isbell was credited with the victory stopping 12 of 13 shots faced.
Next up for them is a 1:15 p.m. encounter against the Markham-Souffville Stars.
As for the OPG Queens they were winners by identical 3-1 scores defeating both the Belmont Blazers and Nepean Wildcats.
Against Belmont they were tied at 1-1 after the opening period with Miranda Mellerup connecting on the power play for the Queens with assists going to Marielle Orr and Whitney Scott.
Thunder Bay then took the lead heading to the final frame as Kristin Martin notched the eventual game-winner finishing off the work of Scott and Lily Vescio.
Taylor Basaraba then iced it in the late stages with an empty net effort.
Alanah Dzijacky was solid in net in picking up the win.
As for the contest vs. Nepean the midget A’s were down 1-0 entering the third before rallying for a come from behind triumph.
Allison Pages set-up Taylor Basaraba for the equalizer before Scott buried the game-winner on assists by Orr and Sarah Doyle.
The Queens then finished off the Wildcats as Basaraba added some insurance as she potted her second of the night.
Earning the victory in net was Natasha Lyons.
They wrap-up round robin play Friday at 1:30 p.m. against the Clearview Ice Cats.
After dropping their opener to the Oakville Hornets by a 2-0 score the Taranis Contracting Queens bounced back to defeat the Kingston Ice Wolves by a 2-1 score.
In the Oakville game Bailey Chennier played well in net for Thunder Bay despite the setback.
Game 2 saw the Queens’ Samantha Isbell tip-in a Briana Prete point shot to open the scoring midway through the opening stanza.
Isbell then buried a shorthanded tally with her club down two skaters deking the Kingston goalkeeper to supply the eventual game-winner.
The Ice Wolves added one late, but Alyssa Aho was solid in the Thunder Bay net to make sure their opponents got no closer to pick up the victory.
They will next take on the Peterborough in their next contest, a 10:30 a.m. start against the Peterborough Ice Cats at 10:30 p.m.
It was not as fortunate for the Triad Queens as they dropped a 3-0 decision to the Kitchener Lady Rangers.
Both teams battled through two scoreless periods, but Kitchener finally opened the scoring with 6:26 remaining.
Two minutes later the Rangers got another shot past Makenna Burke into the Queens’ net before wrapping things up with an empty netter in the late going.
The Peewee Queens will next play at 9:15 a.m. Friday as they meet the Northumberland Wild.
Thunder Bay Queens OWHA provincial championship schedule
Thursday, April 4
Midget A: OPG Queens 3 Belmont Blazers 1
Midget AA: Sportop Queens 4 St. Catharines Chaos 1
Bantam AA: Oakville Hornets 2 Taranis Queens 1
Peewee: vs. Kitchener Lady Rangers 3 Triad Queens 0
Bantam AA: Taranis Queens 2 Kingston Ice Wolves 1
Midget AA: Sportop Queens 2 Whitby Wolves 1
Midget A: OPG Queens 3 Nepean Wildcats 1
Friday, April 5
Peewee: vs. Northhumberland Wild 9:15 a.m.
Bantam AA: vs. Peterborough Ice Kats 10:30 a.m.
Midget AA: vs. Markham-Stouffville Stars 1:15 p.m.
Midget A: Clearview Ice Cats 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 6
Peewee: vs. Whitby Wolves 9:15 a.m.
Sunday, April 7
T.B.D.
