The Humphrey Fleet Service Stratford Atom Aces were in a tough battle but managed to pull out the 4-1 victory over the Woolwich Wild, November 24 thanks to a two goal performance by Eden Fraser.
After a sluggish start, the offense started to roll late in the first. Chloe Rison made three huge saves in a row and then Jayda Dietz opened the scoring with a great individual effort. She danced around the defenders, stepped over the blueline and snapped a shot into the top right corner. Jayda Houben picked up the assist after she started the play in the neutral zone.
The Aces switched up the lines early in the second and it paid off. Emersyn Miller found an opening and sniped it top shelf with Emma Van Nes picking up an assist. Rison had to be sharp midway through the second when the Aces gave up a breakaway on a power play. Then, she came up with several huge stops to thwart the Wild and fire up the Aces. Late in the frame, Fraser kept it in at the blueline, stepped around the defenders and ripped a missile into the top right corner.
Rison turned aside a dangerous three on one early in the third and then midway through the frame Ava Harmer won the draw straight to Fraser at the point. She fired on net and it ricocheted off a defender's skate and into the net to give the Aces a four goal cushion. Rison had to be especially sharp after Houben was sent off for hooking with 5:16 to go. The Wild pressed hard to cut the deficit. With 40 seconds to go, the Wild intercepted and raced in on a breakaway but Rison made a huge save to preserve her shutout bid unfortunately the Aces gave up yet another breakaway and this time the Wild found the back of the net with 18.2 seconds left. The Aces will need to tidy things up defensively as they head to Kitchener, November 26 to face the Lady Rangers and then host the Saugeen Maitland Lightning, November 30 at 12:45 p.m. at the Molson Arena.