TORONTO – The Thunder Bay Sportop midget AA Queens began play at the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincial championships in Toronto Thursday evening by skating to a 1-1 tie with the Peterborough Ice Kats.
The tightly contested match-up saw the two sides go scoreless until well into the third period.
Special teams allowed Peterborough to open the scoring with 3:17 remaining on a Sage Darling power play marker.
However the Queens came right back 64 seconds later getting the equalizer from Kaylee Grosjean.
Earning assists on the tying tally for Thunder Bay was Julia Siciliano and Emilie Varrin.
Bailey Chenier was in net for the Queens helping them pick up a point on the night.
The club returns to the ice Friday starting with a 10:30 a.m. encounter vs. the St. Catharines Brock Jr. Badgers before wrapping up round robin play against the Toronto Aeros at 7 p.m.
A total of 24 midget AA teams will be vying for the title with the Ontario champion moving on to the Esso Cup Canadian championship April 17-23 in Weyburn, Sask.
Meanwhile the Goldcorp midget A and the RBC Dominion Securities bantam AA begin play at the provincials Friday.
The Goldcorp Queens first game will be Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. vs. the Toronto Leaside Wildcats.
From there Peterborough’s Ice Kats midget A side will provide the opposition in a 5:15 p.m. match-up Friday.
As for the RBC Dominion Securities bantam AA’s, they also open play Friday with the face-off with the Whitby Wolves at 1 p.m.
They will then tangle with the Burlington Barracudas in an 8 p.m. start to conclude the day.