Intermediate A Ice Kats advance to 2015 LLFHL Championship Weekend in a shootout thriller, News, Intermediate A, 2014-2015 (Peterborough Girls Hockey Association)

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Mar 15, 2015 | Chris Hutton | 1123 views
Intermediate A Ice Kats advance to 2015 LLFHL Championship Weekend in a shootout thriller
The Intermediate A Ice Kats travelled to Kingston for game 3 of the final playoff series with a monumental task in front of them as they were trailing the series 3 point to 1. 

To advance to the Championship Weekend, the Ice Kats must first beat Kingston in regulation play and then beat them again in sudden victory overtime followed by a possible shootout. Right from the initial drop of the puck, the Ice Kats were determined to accomplish the task at hand as they dominated puck possession and had a number of good scoring chances in the first few shifts of the game. However, the Kingston goalie managed to keep her team in the game in the early going. The Ice Kats finally broke through beating the Kingston goalie for the first goal of the game on a goal scored by Emma Turney and assisted by Kenzie Craig and Karly O'Grady. The Ice Kats later added to their lead on a goal scored by Kassandra Eby and assisted by Sam Tallman and Stephanie Sparkman. As a result of outstanding goaltending by Allison Juniper, the Ice Kats carried a 2-0 lead into the third period. However, Kingston refused to quit and they finally were able to get the puck past the Peterborough netminder to draw within one goal. Peterborough wasn't phased by this goal and continued to take the game to Kingston. Sam Tallman notched Peterborough's third goal of the contest assisted by Kassandra Eby and Stephanie Sparkman making the score 3-1. As the third period wound down, Kingston found themselves frustrated and they took a couple of untimely selfish penalties. The Ice Kats added two more empty net goals scored by Brandi Buchanan and Kenzie Craig winning the regulation part of the game 5-1 which tied the series at 3 points each requiring a 10 minute 4 on 4 sudden victory overtime period. Both teams traded scoring chances in the first 6 minutes of the overtime but neither team could beat the opposing goalie. The pressure was then ramped up for the Ice Kats as Peterborough was assessed a minor penalty and had to play 4 on 3 for the next two minutes. Strong goaltending and great penalty killing allowed Peterborough to weather the storm with the overtime period ending 0-0. After 4 exciting periods of hockey, the game was now down to the dreaded shootout. Allison Juniper was like a wall in front of the Peterborough net as she stopped all three of the Kingston shooters leaving the fate of the game in the hands of the Peterborough shooters. Sam Tallman scored the only goal of the shootout on a Crosby like deke that had the Kingston goalie going the wrong way and Tallman depositing the puck into the open net. Peterborough won the shootout 1-0 giving them the series win and the opportunity to compete in the 2015 LLFHL Championship Weekend on March 27-29. The Intermediate A Ice Kats are also competing in the 2015 Provincial Championships March 20-22 where they hope to improve on their Bronze medal finish in the 2014 Provincial Championships. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks that will finish off a very successful season for the Intermediate A Ice Kats.