NL’s Eastern Ice Breakers Win Gold/ Silver to Moncton Rockets at the 2015 Atlantic Bantam Female Championship – Western Warriors take home Bronze 

Sunday, April 5th/2015

Paradise, NL – Gold Medal Game (Recap): The championship game featured from Hockey Newfoundland & Labrador the Host Eastern Ice Breakers and from Hockey New Brunswick the Moncton Rockets.   The Ice Breakers finished the round robin with a 3W-1L record and the Rockets finished the round robin portion with a record of 2W-1L-1T.

With a packed house watching on the Moncton Rockets broke open a tight first period scoring the opening goal with four minutes left on the clock. With a power play face off in the Eastern end, Rocket forward Courtney Sarault would put one past Eastern goaltender Allison Batstone to make it 1-0, Moncton would carry the lead into the first intermission.

The Eastern Ice Breakers would answer back to tie the game, early in the second period on a 5 on 3 power play, Tournament Top Scorer Ashley Stratton blasted one home to even everything up at one goal a piece.

The final frame saw great end to end action but no goals, so we needed overtime to crown the champions. Not one overtime, not two, not three but finally in the fourth overtime Brandi George took a shot off Moncton Goaltender Jade Saulnier-Cyr and Jennifer Bidgood jumped on the rebound to win the game with 1:16 left in the fourth overtime frame and giving the Eastern Ice Breakers the title of 2015 Atlantic Bantam Female Champions.

The 2015 Atlantic Bantam Female Championship game proved to be a contest for the ages, an instant classic, all teams should be proud of their efforts for the skill displayed over the past four days.

Bronze Medal Game (Recap): 

The Bronze Medal Game featured from Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador the Western Warriors and from Hockey Prince Edward Island the Mid Isle Wildcats.

Kelsey Weeks opened the scoring the Mid Isle Wildcats 1:30 into the game after she banged it home after a scramble in front of Western net minder Madison Marche. The Wildcats would take the 1-0 lead into the first intermission. The Wildcats would again open the period with a goal this time it was Lisa Stevenson with a power play marker to put Mid Isle up 2-0.   Not to be outdone the Western Warriors answered back with a power play goal of their own when Jessica Gould scored to narrow the Mid Isle lead, making it 2-1 after two periods of play.

This set the stage for an ultimate comeback by Western, a team that became known for their excellent third periods throughout the tournament. The ‘comeback kids’ now opened the scoring in the third period when Rebecca Reid buried a beautiful pass on a two on one from speedy forward Emma Reid.   The Warriors kept the momentum going when just over 30 seconds later Gould buried her second of the game giving Western their first lead of the game. Western added to their lead when Tournament Top Forward Jolena Gillard was left alone in front putting it past Tournament Top Goaltender Danielle Gallant, Western’s 4th unanswered goal would make 4-2, Gillard added an empty netter to make it a 5-2 final giving the Western Warriors the Bronze Medal.

Saturday evening the awards banquet was held and a full list of the respective winners are listed below:

Most Sportsmanlike: Amanda Roache – Bedford Blues (HNS)

Top Scorer: Ashley Stratton – Eastern Ice Breakers (HOST)

Top Defencemen: Emily Parsons – Eastern Ice Breakers (HOST)

Top Forward: Jolena Gillard – Western Warriors (HNL)

Top Goaltender: Danielle Gallant – Mid Isle Wildcats (HPEI)

Tournament MVP: Mireille Martin – Moncton Rockets (HNB)

 

The following teams competed in the 2015 Female Bantam Atlantics:

Host: Eastern Ice Breakers

NB: Moncton Rockets

NS: Bedford Blues

PEI: Mid Isle Wildcats

NL: Western Warriors

Thank you to Bell Aliant Community One for providing live coverage of each game of the 2015 Female Bantam Atlantics.

Official Tournament Website: CLICK HERE

2015 Female Bantam Atlantics Official Twitter: @2015_ABFC

Follow Hockey NL on Twitter: @Hkynl

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