The Edmonton Thunder got off to a roaring start at the Esso Cup national female midget hockey championship.
The highly touted Pacific region champions scored a 3-2 shootout decision against the Notre Dame Hounds, last year’s silver medallists, and doubled the Toronto Aeros 4-2 at Servus Credit Union Place.
“It’s good to start off with two wins obviously, especially for the confidence,” said Morgan Glover, the winning goalie in both games. “We have a lot of momentum going into our next few games but it’s all about what we do from here. We just have to keep building on what we did well the last few days.”
Last night the Thunder battled the host St. Albert Slash in a clash of Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League rivals but the score was unavailable at press time.
Today at 4 p.m. the Thunder play Quebec’s Kodiacs du Lac St-Louis. Their last round-robin game is Thursday against Prince Edward Island’s Kings County Kings at 9 a.m.
“There are five great teams here that we’re playing against and you just have to make sure you go step by step and try and get one up on all of them,” said left-winger Mikaeli Cavell, who opened and closed the scoring against Toronto. “This win is pretty big because we had one under our belt and we really wanted to get to that second step and win that second game.”
In the first match, the Thunder were outshot 14-1 in the first period but scored the only goal as Sasha Lutz beat Notre Dame goalie Samantha Langford.
In the third, the West regional champions jumped ahead with a pair but with 3:14 remaining the Thunder pulled even on Kirsten Reeves’ unassisted effort.
After a scoreless five minute four-on-four overtime period, six players took turns in the shootout and the only goal was sniped by Thunder captain Heather Kashman, the team’s third shooter. The league MVP fired a hard shot past Langford, then slid onto one knee and pumped her arm in celebration.
“I don’t think we played the whole game the way we wanted to but we got the win and that’s all that matters,” said Glover.
The Thunder’s player of the game stopped 37 shots, while Langford turned aside 22.
The next game was against the Ontario champions, who were coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the Slash.
“We started off good. We had a few ups and downs but overall I think the momentum was in our favour most of the game,” Glover said. “We did a lot of good things [against Notre Dame] but overall this was just a better game for us today.”
Cavell, 15, put the Thunder on the scoreboard in the first frame on a nice set-up by Kashman.
Toronto answered with two in the second during a period littered with penalties called by St. Albert referee Lacey Senuk. The go-ahead goal by Toronto was scored during a four-on-three power play.
Before the period ended, Kashman converted passes by Lutz and Alison Campbell to knot it at two. Shots were 10 apiece in the middle frame.
“In the second period they had a lot of momentum after they got the two goals but we killed off two penalties and then it was definitely in our favour the rest of the game. We had control for most of the third period,” Glover said.
The game winner came on the power play at 1:19, when Kelsie Lang’s point shot was tipped in by Caitlin Connell.
A sprawling glove save by Morgan with about 10 minutes to go kept the lead intact.
A highlight-reel breakaway goal by Cavell with 3:06 remaining was the play of the game. After reeling in the puck on the Thunder side of centre ice, she escaped from a trio of Aeros and made no mistake in going top shelf against netminder Sarah Stephens.
“I saw my linemate chipping the puck and it come out so I knew I had to skate for it. I picked it up and I realized that I had no defenders ahead of me and that’s when I got kind of nervous because there was all that pressure from their D chasing me and then seeing the goalie waiting for me. I just saw that corner and I fired it. All I remember was being excited because I saw it hit the mesh,” said the Grade 10 O’Leary High School student.
Shots were 25-22 overall for the Thunder, including a 7-4 spread in the last 20 minutes.
“After going into overtime and having that tense situation we realized that we just had to give it that extra effort today so we brought it all,” Cavell said. “We worked really hard in the corners and the walls. We were just competing really well and battling. We didn’t like to be second to the puck so we were working hard.”
Regardless how the rest of the round robin unfolds, the Thunder are in good shape to make Friday’s semifinals at noon or 4 p.m. The medal games go Saturday; bronze at 2 p.m. and gold at 6 p.m.
Last year the Thunder won bronze after finishing fourth at the inaugural 2009 nationals.
“We want to bring it home this time,” said Glover, 17.
This is the third Esso Cup for five Thunder players, including the pint-sized five-foot-three puck stopper with nerves of steel.
“Just from the whole experience of being there before, we know what not to get overwhelmed by. We also let the younger players who haven’t been here before know what to expect,” said the Grade 12 Eastglen High School student.
