WINDSOR – The Thunder Bay First Class Gas bantam AA Queens have returned home from the sixth annual Hocktoberfest International Female Hockey Festival in Windsor with a silver medal.
After defeating the Sarnia Lady Sting 2-1 in a shootout in semifinal action Thunder Bay dropped a hard-fought 3-0 decision to the St. Catharines Chaos in the championship game.
Down a goal vs. Sarnia in the semifinal Madeline Browczuk scored in the second to tie the contest at 1-1 where it stayed until extra shots.
Needing a tally to keep the game going Kaylee Grosjean scored to see the shootout continue.
Alyssa Aho then made a big save in the Thunder Bay net setting the stage for Alyssa Cicigoi to pot the winner.
In the gold medal contest, it was a tightly-checking affair that did not see the game’s first goal until 7:44 into the third period.
St. Catharines added a later marker and a final one into the empty net to seal the Queen’s fate.
Round robin play saw the side go unbeaten with a 3-0-1 record.
Game 1 Friday saw the Queens skate to a 1-1 tie vs. the Kitchener Lady Rangers.
Amanda Pages notched the goal for Thunder Bay in the first period with Zoe Hynnes and Vanessa Nicholl supplying assists with Aho playing in net.
Kitchener then tied it in the middle frame against in the Queens’ net while the third period was scoreless in a contest.
The club’s second contest saw them edge the host Windsor Wildcats by a 3-2 score.
Nicholl opened the scoring as she finished off a Jayda MacArthur feed.
Karadyn Kiviaho extended the lead with Briana Prete picking up the helper.
Windsor cut into the deficit for the only goal of the second before Julia Siciliano buried the eventual game-winner in the third.
The Wildcats added a late effort for the final tally of the game.
Makenna Burke picked up the victory between the pipes for Thunder Bay.
Saturday then saw the Queens edge Detroit Belle Tire 2-1.
Grosjean finished off the work of Michaela Kunnas and Ciccigoi to put the squad up early before Belle Tire tied it in the second.
The score stayed at 1-1 until late in regulation when Siciliano slammed home her second game-winner is as many outings to give the Queens the win. Groslean and Caitlyn Radbourne assisted on the play.
Aho was the winning netminder in the game.
Moving on to quarter-final action Saturday evening Thunder Bay met Kitchener once again as the Queens rode the shutout goaltending of Burke to blank the Lady Rangers 4-0.
After a scoreless opening stanza the team got efforts from Emilie Varrin, Browczuk and MacArthur to take control.
Varrin then added her second of the night to round out the scoring in the third to wrap-up the victory.
The next out of town event for the First Class Gas Queens will be Nov. 21-23 when they travel to Blaine, Minn., to take part in the All-American girls tournament.
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