The Edmonton Thunder stormed into Friday’s semifinals as the team to beat at the Esso Cup.
Last year’s bronze medallists won four in a row before wrapping up the six team round-robin draw Thursday against the winless Kings County Kings of Prince Edward Island. The score was unavailable at press time.
“We want to prove that we’re not a third place team. We’re going to rank higher than that for sure,” said right-winger Alison Campbell, who scored a dramatic goal late in regulation time to beat the host St. Albert Slash 1-0 Tuesday at Servus Credit Union Place. “We’re building off each win and we’re hoping that will give us the momentum going into the semis.”
The semifinal results were also not available at deadline.
The finals are scheduled for today. The bronze playoff starts at 2 p.m. and the gold medal game goes at 6 p.m.
The Thunder solidified their first-place ranking in the barn-burner against their rivals from St. Albert.
“It showed the battle between our two teams,” Campbell said. “It was even the whole game. It wasn’t really one of the other teams kind of above each other.”
The Thunder outshot the Slash 12-7 in the first period, 6-3 in the second stanza and 8-5 in the third. Morgan Glover of the Thunder and St. Albert’s Emily Mitchell made several quality saves to keep the game scoreless until Campbell lit the lamp with 1:12 to play.
“Their goalie played great but I really believe that things just weren’t bouncing our way. The gods didn’t want us to score today but we found a way,” said Campbell, 17, a Grade 12 Archbishop MacDonald High School student.
The play of the game started with a low shot by Thunder captain Heather Kashman from the left wing. Mitchell kicked the puck out and Campbell was allowed to fire it into the back of the net.
“I guess the defence just didn’t know where it really was and it was a nice, juicy rebound for me,” Campbell said. “It was just a great effort by the whole line to dump it in. That’s what we’ve been trying to do the whole game — just keep it simple and go hard to the net.”
It was also a major adrenaline rush for the Pacific regional champions.
“It was great to finish the game off like that,” Campbell said. “It’s definitely a boost for our team. We didn’t really want to go into the shootout or the overtime at least, so it was good to win it like that.”
The Thunder are dominating 7-1-1 against the Slash this season.
“They’re a very strong team. They didn’t lose a single game all year [27-0-5 in league play]. They’re tough to beat and we were right with them right to the very end. It’s devastating to come that close but when you get into competitions like this there is that risk and unfortunately it didn’t go our way,” said Slash head coach Terry Sydor. “It was one of those real special games with lots of electricity and atmosphere. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win.”
A scintillating save by Glover on a breakaway by top gun Jessica Kampjes with 7:16 to play while the Slash were killing a penalty kept the game scoreless.
Earlier in the period, Kampjes and Karly Heffernan had glorious chances to break the stalemate.
“We work to get our opportunities and they didn’t ultimately result in goals and that’s why we lost the game,” Sydor said. “We had chances and great chances. We were in all alone with extremely talented offensive players and just couldn’t get a goal.”
The loss left the Slash scrambling to make the medal round after edging the Toronto Aeros 4-3 in a shootout and stoning the Kings 5-0 to open the tournament.
“We needed points out of this game and unfortunately didn’t get them,” Sydor said. “We’ve put ourselves into a position that we certainly can qualify but we need to get it done, just as in this game we put ourselves in a position to win and we didn’t. We have two games left and we need some points out of them. We certain can do it and we’re going to try our darnedest.”
The Thunder are also on a mission in their third straight trip to the national female midget hockey championship.
“We want to show that we’re the strongest Thunder team to ever come out of the [Alberta] league,” said Campbell, one of five Thunder skaters playing in their third Esso Cup. “It’s nice that we’re playing so close to home. We have the support of our fans and family. There is no travelling, just home-cooked meals. It’s great.”
