The DDO Peewee A Blades hockey team recently travelled to St. Alban’s, Vermont to compete in the International Rail City Challenge Tournament. At tournament’s end, it was the DDO girls who picked up all the marbles to return home as champions. Blades’ goalie Alina Traa was sensational in the gold medal match versus a team from Ottawa that was won by the Blades by a score of 2-1. Scoring for the Blades in the final match were Brianna McNeil and Sophia Cuoci. Cuoci’s goal came following an end-to-end rush by Blades’ Samantha Liverman who drew the two opposing defenseman to the corner before sliding the puck across to Cuoci for the score. Selected for the Blades as MVP’s in the games leading up to the finals were Christine Lampron, Bianca Dufault, Alina Traa, Samantha Liverman and Sophia Cuoci.
Also distinguishing themselves at this tournament were the Lakeshore Panthers who played their best hockey of the season. In a semi-final match against Ottawa, the team that went on to the finals, the Panthers dropped a hard-fought 3-2 loss. Following a second period goal by Emma Beisswanger, Ottawa entered the third period with a 2-1 lead. Panthers Melina Tilton then tied the game with minutes left in the third period. Unfortunately as hockey gods’ sometimes do, they shone on the Ottawa girls who scored with 28 seconds to go in the match and moved on to the finals. MVP’s for the Panthers during the various games played during the weekend included Shannon Wilding, Catherine Léveillé, Victoria Hough and Melina Tilton. Hats off to Panthers goaltender Kaehla Acteson and forward Holly Bloomfield who were simply on fire in every game played.
