The Midget A Female Fusion almost pulled
off an upset against the North Island Edge, who are the top team on the
Island. Valentine’s Day morning the Fusion converged for a special pancake
breakfast hosted by sponsors Breakers Marine & Grumbach & Sons and set off
to Campbell River for the first game of a best out of three for the Island
championship.
From the drop of the puck, the Fusion
had to contend with penalties in the first half and the Edge finally
managed to put one past goalie, Hayley Dowling. The Edge went ahead 2-0 in
the second before Fusion forward Katie Isherwood closed the gap with a
pretty goal set up by Krista Plaunt and Kyla Schafer. Shayla Frechette
tied things up just two minutes later, on a nice feed by Samm Moore. The
Edge scored with just minutes left in the second to go ahead 3-2. The
Fusion had a chance to tie it up midway through the third on a power play
but a couple of bad bounces ended up with the Edge scoring a shorthanded
goal.
Down two goals, the Fusion didn’t give
up and kept pressing and were finally rewarded with less than two minutes
remaining when Abby Hawkins (G. Grumbach) jammed one in the side post to
give the Fusion hope. After a timeout called by the coaches, the Fusion
must have done what the coaches asked as they gained the offensive zone,
pulled the goalie and scored the tying goal by Sam Campbell (Frechette and
Moore) with thirty seconds left on the clock.
The first overtime saw the Fusion have
to kill three consecutive penalties but managed to come out of that period
with hopes still alive thanks to some great goaltending by Dowling. Going
into the second overtime reenergized, the Fusion had many chances to put
it away but failed to beat the North Island goalie. The third overtime saw
the Fusion miss two open nets and hit one goalpost dominating the first 5
minutes but the Edge took advantage of a blocked shot at their blue line
creating a breakaway and scored the winning goal.
Don’t count the Fusion out yet. This
exciting series will continue here at home when they host the NI Edge
Saturday Feb 20th 11:45am at the Multiplex. Fan support is
greatly appreciated.
written by Diane Moore
