This past weekend in Simcoe & Port Dover the Montgomery Ford Midget girls "C" team attended the Cassie Turner memorial girls hockey tournament with several age levels and dividsons participating! The weather was good on Friday compared to last few days prior, for the drive and with the our teams 1st game played @ 1:00pm in Simcoe, wanted to get away in good time with safe arrival and which or course also meant the players were able to miss a day of school on Friday :) The tournament in our division consisted of 5 Midget "C" teams, TCDMHA , Norfolk , Ilderton , Lambton Shores and of course Kincardine. All team gaurenteed 4 games of which 2 would advance to play a championship game on Sunday.
All games were 12-12-12 periods, all games had to finish with a win or loss, so if tied at end of 3 periods, it would force shootouts to decide winners. Scoring went 3 points for a win in regulation, 2 points for a win in a shoot out, 1 point for a loss in shoot out and no points for a loss in reg time. With the safe arrival to Simcoe on time of all Kincardine players, parents , coaches and the Padfields once they found their car ! The 1st game match up was actually vs TCDMHA who we played last Sunday and they some what were cursed as their coach and 2 players were in the accident in Underwood last weekend , it turned out that actual day on the way to Simcoe on of their players had another accident close to home and was unable to make it till Sunday for their team ! Very unfortunate with the weather for this team . This did not affect their game play for TCDMHA from playing a great game. Kincardine started with full 3 lines and our goalie Amber Howald. The game started fast and the girls were pumped , we took the early lead in the 1st period 2 minutes in and then things change as the 3rd line started and loses Kelsey Padfield L/W hit a hard body check, on her 1st shift hitting the ice, acquiring a severe enough concussion putting her out for the weekend (: Which did affect and seem to mess up the lines right off the start for the Ford girls and caused a scurry. Thinking all is ok and TCDMHA pop 2 goals back to back with 58 seconds left on the clock in the 1st . Soon into the 2nd period Kincardine came back and tied the game, both teams playing hard thru the 3rd remaining tied to the end of the 3rd period forcing a shootout for TCDMHA to win after 5 shooters from each team for a 3-2 score. We were able to gain 1 point from the loss in this 1st game to be a bigger factor for Kincardine later in this 4 game tournament !! Playing the next game @ 5:30, the team had time to check into the motel and grab some food before game #2 in Simcoe again vs Norfolk Herricanes. This game was a needed to win game in order for a shot at playing Sunday for both of these teams also !! Exiting !! Well the same applied to them, this was a fast game, and Norfolk finally opened up the scoring for the game with a 1:10 left on the clock in the 2nd period. After the 2nd period chat, Kincardine kept trying and trying to score as their goalie was stopping everyting, we were outshooting them excessively almost 3 to 1 , with only 2 minutes left in the period, we scored a big goal to tie the game . Now this picked up Kincardine confidents at the right time and now really pressured with more action in the Norfolk end and with only 20 seconds left in the game a huge scurry in front of their net, the Ford girls scored for the win to avoid the shootout. The team all went back to the motel with big smiles and spent the evening of enjoyment and our team sponsor Montgomery Ford set up a pizza party for the team and parents that night which everyone enjoyed and appreicated to finish a nice day !
On Saturday the girls 3rd game was in Port dover vs Ilderton Jets @ 1:00pm to allowed our team to have good rest from Friday. Well with even with the rest, the Ilderton team were ready for us as we had played them last year in the final game to win a tournament in Lucan Pink on the Rink that they had attended also and didnt forget. Kincardine took the 1st period and not seriously enough as Idlerton was leading 3-0 after the 1st was over. Stunned with what just happened and heads down and a quiet bench, Kincardine finally started forcing more, and with Port Dovers big ice surface,we were able to start getting chances, scoring a goal in the 2nd period early. The 3rd period went good with Kincardine having a power play goal to make it 3-2 now with 6 minutes left, and trying to tie, pulling the goalie with 1 minute left didnot help and suffered a close loss 3-2 . With little time before our 4th game @ 4:30pm Saturday , back in Simcoe at the Talbot center, vs Lambton Shores , if there was any chance to advance to Sunday and how other team games all played out with their games , we had to win this game. All games in this Midget Division thru out any team combination were all 1 goal difference , they were all tight scores. Kincardine thought they would change that and open up with full attack for 3 periods and dominated game 4 for a smooth and confident 4-1 win. The team still at this point had no idea if they played Sunday or going home ( till other teams were still playing till 9pm that night. The team all went to the motel for beverages and advil to settle down from stress and hoping, wondering the outcome. As it turned out, around 7:30 that night, coach Gordo went to watch a game that fell into our favor on Norfolk beating TCDMHA -- allowing us to finish 2nd in the group to advance to Sunday to play Ilderton again in the Gold medal game. As the girls were all excited finding out this BIG news ! The entire team attended the Simcoe 2013 Christmas Panarama - River by the Lights festival that evening @ 8:00pm , which is in the top 100 festival events in Ontario for 2013, 3 aches of Xmas Lights and 100's of displays with wagon and sleigh rides. The Midget girls even took party in singing Xmas caroles and organized a team photo in the lights! With our big final game on Sunday @ 12:30, the coaching staff had a cerfew for the players to get rested . All the players and parents checked out, had breakfast and ventured to Talbot arena for the final and there in lots of time. With a small delay of prior games that morning , small delay for the Jets and Kinucks to battle ! The 1st period kept all the fans on their toes and players from both teams giving it ALL leaving the 1st period scoreless. Kincardine decided to take a early lead in the start of the 2nd , which seem to raise our level of the game, cycling our changes like the pro's to keep lines fresh, moving the puck in the right direction, towards the end of second period Kincardine scores a Huge goal with 00.04 seconds left on the clock to start the 3rd period with a 2-0 lead ! Well we knew then Idlerton would attack with everything and they did and were able to get 1 early and another to tie with only 3 minutes left to stay tied . This then forced a 4v4 sudden death 4th period. This was tense for everyone and the bench was shortend. With Kincardine acquiring a penalty in O/T with 45 seconds left to go, we were able to keep it tied and stayed scoreless .Now heading in to the 5th period for a 3 player shootout ! Yikes a coaches nightmare ! Well this turned out better for Idlerton scoring 1 of their 3 and Kincardine not able to score, which really you can get any closer win of lose to be even as the toss of a coin more or less !! ALL 38 players from both teams are very equal & very sportsman like to play and respectfull amongst themsleves and the coaching or both teams ! Idlerton wins Gold and Kincardine wins Silver after 5 periods in the final. both teams lined up on the blue lines for awards and medals with both teams smiling . At 2:30 pm , the team all headed home after a long fun exciting weekend of good memories . The Kincardine Montgomery Midget girls wait to play Ilderton again this year in the Lucan pink on the rink tournament in January , we can hardly wait !