Royals deal Panthers first defeat

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

The Trois Lacs/Lakeshore Panthers will not go through the entire 2006-07 Lac St. Louis Hockey Association peewee A girls’ regular season without a loss.

Rival West Island Royals saw to that on Sunday morning at the Dorval Arena, dealing the previously undefeated Panthers its first defeat by a 3-1 count. The first-place Panthers, who entered the game with a sparkling 16-0-2 record, were missing three key players due to personal reasons, including goaltender Milena Piacek, defenceman Ayleigh Farquharson and forwards Natanya Momesso and Bryell Muller. With the win, head coach Rudy Erfle’s Royals, whose record improved to 13-3-5 heading into tonight’s contest against the Dollard des Ormeaux/Pierrefonds Civics at Bob Birnie Arena, only underlined what league observers have been well aware of up to now. That is, there is not very much to choose between these two sides, with each and every game from here on in, including one more regular-season tussle this Sunday afternoon at Dorval Arena and an almost assuredly final playoff series, expected to be nothing less than a major struggle. The Panthers won three previous encounters by narrow 1-0, 2-0 and 3-1 margins.

“It’s good to know we can now actually beat this team,” said Erfle, who was also missing three performers, including Ashley Brown, Erin Webber and Frederique Larichelière. “Would I consider this an upset? Maybe, but we’ve played them tough all season. Our kids skated really hard out there, and they were getting tired. Because of that, we used two lines plus a rover. Our goaltender, Meghan Bourgeault, came up big and made some key saves as well.”

Bourgeault had little chance on Alyssa Patrick’s wonderful shot that beat her high on the right side with 36 seconds left in the first period to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. From there on in though, she did hold the fort, all during a scoreless second period until Marina Erfle evened the count with a little over a minute gone in the third, banging one past Panthers goaltender Bianca Petri, a peewee B call-up. The winning goal was scored with seven minutes left in the game by the Royals’ Rachel Labelle, also a peewee B call-up, who beat Petri cleanly from the slot. Abbygail Hammond scored an insurance marker for the Royals with 40 seconds left in the game, despite the fact the Panthers had been pressing hard at the time for the equalizer.

“I thought we played tough even though we were down some players,” said Panthers head coach Ron Smith. “We played a good team out there, and it was good for us, because we need the competition, and so did the Royals. Still, I told the girls they had better be prepared for this game, because I could see the hunger in their players’ eyes before the game, and it showed in their play.”

Puck note: Congratulations are in order to the Kirkland-based Kuper Academy juvenile girls’ hockey club, which captured the Greater Montreal Athletic Association high-school championship Feb. 27 when it shut out Polyvalente Ste Thérèse 2-0. Forward Lesley Oles was named Most Valuable Player for Kuper.