MADISON, Wis. – Each of the three Thunder Bay Queens teams competing at the fourth annual CAN/AM Challenge Cup in Madison, Wis., will play for a medal on Sunday.
The RBC Dominion Securities bantam AA Queens while go in search of the gold as they take on the St. Louis Lady Blues at 10:15 a.m. in the title game.
Meanwhile the midget A side meet the Colorado Selects at 2:15 p.m. in the third place contest with the Tim Hortons peewees also skating in a bronze medal match-up as they square off against the Brighton KV Ravens at 9 a.m.
The bantam AA’s punched their ticket to the final after skating to a 1-1 tie with the Madison Capitols Saturday and topping the Chicago Fury 3-1 later in the day.
Down against Madison, Carly Hennesssey provided the equalizer for the Queens in the second period in the tightly-played game.
Josée Robinson stopped 14 of 15 in helping her squad pick up a point.
Taking on Chicago, Victoria Darosa got the Queens going by tallying twice in the first period.
Vanessa Nichol put Thunder Bay up by three in the second before the Fury added one later in the middle session.
Makenna Burke shut the door the rest of the way finishing with 23 saves in earning the triumph in net.
After starting with a pair of convincing wins Friday, the midget A Queens dropped a couple of hard-fought one-goal decisions Saturday.
They began with a 4-3 defeat vs. the Minnesota Revolution before being blanked 1-0 by the Chicago Fury in evening action.
In the contest against Minnesota, the Revolution took a 1-0 lead into the second period before Allison Pages tied it 6:21 into the second.
Minnesota added another seven minutes later to take the lead into the third.
The Revolution added another 38 seconds into the final frame before Thunder Bay answered back with goals courtesy of Montana Russo and Pages to tie it late.
Minnesota’s Morgan Helgeson added her second of the game with just over a minute to go however to pull out the victory.
The Queens held the edge in shots on goal 33-27 with Cameron Ivall suffering the loss.
Against Chicago, Emma Paravola notched the lone tally of the game eight seconds into the middle stanza as the Fury blanked Thunder Bay.
The Queens pumped 37 shots on Chicago netminder Emily Wissemas, but could not solve her.
Taylor Gombola faced 19 attempts in defeat for her side.
As for the Tim Hortons peewees, they too earned a chance to play for bronze after skating to a 3-3 draw with the St. Louis Lady Blues Saturday.
St. Louis took the lead early in that contest only to see Kayla Stein tie it before the first was completed.
After a scoreless second, the two teams traded a pair of markers each in the third to finish things off.
Alexi Paddington accounted for both Thunder Bay goals.
