Jan 19, 2017 | cwaite | 1361 views
PW BB's Take Gold in Chicago
The St. Thomas Panther PW BB's traveled to Chicago over the weekend to compete in the Winter Classic. Boarding the train early Friday morning for the 6 hour ride the girls were very excited. They arrived in the Windy City and dined at Giordano's, a traditional Chicago style restaurant then boarded another train for trip to Naperville for the tourney.
First up for the Panthers were the Waukesha County Wolves from Wisconson. The St. Thomas sqaud came out flying and passed their way to a 5-0 win. Alyssa was strong in net, the defence moved the puck, and the forwards carried their speed through the neutral zone. Next up for the Canadians were the hometown Naperville Sabres. They picked up where they left off and were all over the Illinois team from the drop of the puck. When the final buzzer sounded it was once again 5-0 for the Panthers.
A night of manhunt, swimming and a coaches strategy session from 5:30 to 7:30 made for some fun.
On Sunday the girls had to play 2 games against a couple of Chicago area teams. Emma and Alyssa backstopped the team to two wins and earned them a trip to the finals where they would play the powerful London Devilettes for the Gold.
London was favored as they finished first overall in the round robin.
Many of the fans said it reminded them of the match-up between South Bend Central & Hickory for the Indiana State Championship.
The big city Devillettes came out hard and battled their way to a 1-0 lead. The Panthers stayed the course focusing on making good passes, skating hard and there were able to tie it up late in the second period. Throughout the final frame the game was back and forth. Finally after driving wide and getting the puck to the net St. Thomas was able to get the go ahead goal. It was a fight to the end but St.Thomas hung on for the win.
London was a great opponent and the girls were very gracious after the game. Some of the friends who played against each other in the final took some pics together.
The Panthers had to hustle to catch another train downtown where were able to get some pics at The Bean and buy bags full of candy at Dylan's.
Special thanks goes to Abe and Mike for hauling the equipment as well as Sammy, Quinn and Brady who the MVP's for cheering all weekend!!!! Amanda did a great job organizing and with exception of Mrs. Gilchrist getting locked in the bathroom on the train it was a great weekend.