Oct 24, 2023 | Andrew Medhurst | 142 views
U15 A Aces Begin Season 1-1-1
15A Lands Ready, Willing and Able in
Grueling Southern West Loop
The Romeo Pet Hospital U15 A girls begin the season with mixed success against all opponents in all competition, pre-season, two tournaments and now into a young regular season. The U15A’s have been roped into the dreaded ‘west’ southern loop of the OWHL . As the most northern team, the girls will travel to the southern reaches of the province including Windsor, Chatham, Mooretown, Bluewater, St. Thomas, London, and luckily the girls will head to Perth’s neighboring county to face our perennial nemesis the South Huron Sabres in league play, and ultimately in the annual showdown to see who gets to represent our region at the provincials in April.
Headed by sophomore coach and the pride of Mitchell, Andrew Medhurst the Aces have come off the successful run to the semi finals at the annual pink the rink tournament in Etobicoke where they would fall to finalist Brampton who had the Aces number throughout the tournament. Medhurst would comment that while the Aces were able to take their game to the Brampton side, Brampton would serve up two devastating tournament defeats to the Aces to quell their efforts for glory in Etobicoke. This past weekend had the Ace gunners on the road to sunny Windsor where they met the Wildcats for the first time this year. The Aces stormed out of the gate and pressured the Wildcats net right from the first puck drop. Improved from the pre-season the Ace D patiently moved the puck up to consistently find their outlets up front. Reputationally tough and tenacious, some of the Ace forwards turned their toughness into Wildcat aggression which drew penalties early to allow the Aces to continue to apply pressure throughout. The Aces would go up 1-0 in the second. With only 2 goals in the first two games of this season, the Aces would have to hold on tight to see this game through to the end. The Wildcats would push hard in the final frame and land an extremely late punch on the Ace D and with 40 seconds left and repeated failures for the Aces to clear, an open Wildcat winger would beat the Aces to tie the game 1-1 - to the devastation of the Ace squad.
Game 2 of the Aces weekend banana belt tour of Ontario found the girls in a beautiful and cloudless Chatham to face the Crush at the Chatham Memorial Arena Sunday. There was no doubt the this would be a difficult challenge after a long weekend on the road. Choppy puck control and disconnected passes would describe the Ace play, a definite departure from the day previous, as the Crush would do a better job of anticipating the Aces’ every move. Numerous Ace forwards would break through, only to be stopped by a hot Crush netminder. The Crush would get past the Aces twice in the second to push the Aces back 2-0 by the end of the second. The Crush would add an empty netter late in the third to solidify the win and hand the Aces their first loss of the regular season.
Post game coach Medhurst spoke to the media scrum that assembled outside the Ace dressing room in the old rickety barn in Chatham ...In response to the Ace loss, Meddy while chewing on an apple yelled at the belligerent journalist who asked the question ‘Yes, we should’ve won darn it, of course, this team is beatable.’ He went on to say the despite the setback the girls have so much to be proud of so early on. The first-year girls on this team have acclimatized to the more physical play, the newfound lack of space on the rink, and the need to use each other to move the puck. D to D passes in transition have propelled the breakout and has been a crucial improvement and while the Ace goaltending has been rock solid as a backstop to the improved rear line he summarized by exclaiming that now is the time for the goal scorers to finish the job. Girl’s hockey is notorious for low scores and Meddy implied that his squad has the talent and is destined to break this habit.
The Aces will host Chatham this weekend at the Allman and prepare for their third tournament of the year in Waterloo November 3-5.
Submitted by
U15A sports beat reporter Rob Nyenhuis