Winner's Circle

Congratulations to Sara Stephenson and Emma Woods for winning awards at the Brant Sports Council banquet. Sara was the winner of the Adrian Scherders Memorial Award for Sportsmanship Dedication. Congratulations also to finalist Kaleigh Russell. Emma was the winner of the Phyllis Gretzky Memorial Award for Female Youth Leadership. Congratulations also to finalist Kate Wiltse.

On December 29th, 2011, the Brantford Ice Cats Bantam A Team returned to Mississauga to defend their 2010 gold medal win. Our team went through the round-robin portion of the tournament, defeating North York and Ancaster before losing to Mississauga. Our record qualified us for the gold-medal game against Mississauga. It should be noted that Mississauga went through the round-robin undefeated and without surrendering a single goal. They are a fast team, dominated by large players.

During the first half of the game, Mississauga scored two goals and had our Ice Cats pinned in our end, frequently crashing our net and pinching their defense into the play. Coach’s Cross, Arabski, Burbridge and Norris changed our strategy to counter the Mississauga attack. Our ladies never lost their will to win. Within moments, we scored two goals to tie the game, seemingly sending the Mississauga team into a panic. At the beginning of the third period, the Mississauga captain scored a goal from the slot to put them in to the lead. Again we fought back and dominated the last half of the period. With only moments to play, our Captain, Sammy Burbridge, poke-checked a defender and went in on a break-away, scoring on a skilled bit of stick-handling while tumbling over their goalie, tying the score at three. The game went into overtime and despite close plays at both ends, nothing was resolved. Then came the dreaded shoot-out. Unfortunately, we came up a little short to Mississauga and ultimately were awarded the Silver Medal. Nobody hung their heads as every Ice Cat on our team knew that she had played her heart out and with pride.

This marks the third silver medal in three Tournaments for our team this season, after previous appearances in gold-medal games in Oshawa in September and Etobicoke in October.

Our Bantam House League team played in the Cassie Turner Memorial Hockey Tournament this past weekend in Simcoe. Their first game ended with about 7 players shooting in a suspenseful shoot-out with a score of 2-1 for Brantford against Hamilton. The second game was lost in the third period when the opposing Grimsby team scored two goals and won 2-0. The third game of the round robin games was won 4-1 against Stoney Creek. This allowed our team to move forward to the finals facing the Grimsby team again. Brantford was winning 2-1 after the first period and were able to hold on until 3 minutes left in the third period when Grimsby scored. Brantford scored with 1:20 left in the game and held on to victory with a final score of 3-2. Congratulations to our Brantford Bantams for a great weekend of hockey and bringing home the first place trophy.

• Brantford 3 - London 2
• Brantford 3 - Oakville 0
• Brantford 6 - Mississauga 0
• Brantford 3 - Mississauga 2
• Oakville 4 - Brantford 3

The Bantam A team traveled to Oshawa for the 2011 Oshawa Lady General's Fall Classic Tournament, September 23rd-25th. The girls defeated Bluewater Hawks 6-2 on Friday morning, followed by a victory over the North York Storm 3-1 on Friday afternoon. On Saturday night, our Ice Cats defeated the Scarborough Sharks 3-2, qualifying for the semi-final match on Sunday morning. Once again, Brantford came out on the winning side, defeating the Guelph Thunder 3-1. The gold medal game was played Sunday afternoon against the only other undefeated Bantam A team in the tournament, the Markham-Stouffville Stars. Our girls fought a hard game but regrettably lost 3-1, earning the silver medal. This was an outstanding achievement for the team and a great start for the 2011-2012 season.

Past Winners