WINNIPEG, Man. – SPORTS – It was mixed results Saturday for the four Thunder Bay Queens teams competing in tournaments outside of the city.
The Toppers Pizza midget A side were eliminated in quarter-final action at the ninth annual Lieutenant Governor’s tournament in Winnipeg while the bantam AA Queens are off to the semifinals of the Prelude to the Playoffs event in Eden Prairie, Minn.
You also had the Tim Hortons bantam A’s winning a pair of games at the Scheels Sports under-15 tourney in Fargo, N.D. and the peewee Queens dropping a pair of contests at the Cabin Fever Classic in Osseo-Maple Grove, Minn.
The midget A’s finished sixth in round robin play after a 6-1 round robin setback against the Fort Saskatchewan Fury.
They then met the No. 3 seeded Fury again in the quarter-finals where they fell 4-1.
Brynne Lambert had the lone Thunder Bay goal in the first game of the day with Riley Thompson and Victoria Darosa picking up assists.
Anjelina Badanai faced 29 shots in defeat.
In the second meeting vs. Fort Saskatchewan, Mackenzie Lehto picked up the lone Queens’ marker on a set-up from Caitlyn Olinski. Cameron Ivall suffered the setback in net.
Bantam AA play saw the club post back-to-back shutouts as they blanked the Lakeville North Panthers 11-0 before stopping the host Eden Prairie Eagles 3-0.
In the triumph over Lakeville North, Alexis Paddington had a trick while Brenna Nicol tallied twice and added two assists.
Kailey Swerhun, who also added two helpers, Kendra Fortin, Mikaela Chimbakis, Kayla Stein, Sibley Duckert and Bella Carangi supplied singles in the romp.
Sarah Grieve chipped in with three assists while Camryn Williams recorded the shutout.
Against the Eagles, Nicol opened the scoring in the first with the eventual game-winner.
The score stayed that way until Nicol scored again at the 11-minute mark of the third before she completed a hat trick with in the late going minutes off a nice assist from Hope Bobyk-Goheen.
Lindsay Humeniuk registered the shutout.
They’ll now meet the powerful Edina Green in semifinal action Sunday at 10:15 a.m. with the bronze and gold/silver match-ups going later in the day.
As for the Tim Hortons bantam A’s they posted a 3-1 decision over the Moorhead Spuds before waxing the Grand Forks Phantoms 8-0.
In the meeting with Moorhead, Thunder Bay rallied from an early deficit to secure the win over the Spuds.
After falling behind on a first period power play goal, the Queens turned it around in the second period starting with a great effort by Laura Van Dyk as she skated wide then drove hard to the net and saw Emma Johnston snap home the equalizer on a rebound.
Grace Grosjean added the winner than two minutes later on a breakaway as she buried the eventual decider in the top corner of the net.
Gaby Andreacchi then iced it with an empty netter in the final seconds.
Andreacchi also had a big game against Grand Forks as she scored once and doled out three assists in the one-sided decision.
Johnston and Jada Leblanc chipped in with two tallies apiece with Kaiden Lanteigne, Grosjean and Isabella Badanai adding one each
Marissa Brosseau was in net for both wins.
The bantam A Queens return to the ice Sunday morning at 9 a.m. as they take on the host Fargo Freeze.
Meanwhile at the Cabin Fever Classic in Osseo-Maple Grove, Minn., the peewee Queens were blanked 4-0 by the Anoka-Rogers Tornadoes before falling 3-1 to the St. Cloud Huskies.
