Midget Wildcats drop Ice Breaker final in 15 overtimes

Mid Canada Construction Midget ‘AA’ Wildcats earned a silver medal on the weekend at the 9th Annual Ice Breaker Cup tournament in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Mid Canada Wildcats and Marquette Iron Rangers entertained a packed house at the Rhodes Arena in the gold medal game, playing 15 nail-biting periods of overtime before Marquette’s Dana Dillon slid the puck past sprawled Wildcats goalie, Dana Desaulnier, for a 2-1 win.

The goal was Dillon’s second of the game after notching the tying goal with 5:35 remaining in the third period.

It was a heart-breaking loss for the Wildcats who held a 1-0 lead for most of the game and out-chanced the Iron Rangers in the overtime marathon. Julia Sayers opened the scoring halfway through the first period completing a set up from Megan Dubas and Naomi Taylor.

Both goalies were sensational from start to finish, with Mid Canada Wildcats’ Desaulnier and Marquette’s Chelsea Maynard earning the game star selections.

The Wildcats’ appearance in the Midget ‘AA’ finals was their first in 3 years at the Ice Breaker Cup.

A 3-2 loss to Marquette on Saturday night in preliminary action put them into a 3-way tie for second place with Thunder Bay and North Bay; however, the Cats squeaked past both teams into the championship game after posting a better plus/minus ratio in round robin play.

Deralise Mills scored the first goal and set up Julia Sayers for the second in the 3-2 loss. Ashley Bradley had a single assist for the Wildcats. Marquette’s Kristin Rouleau scored all three goals for the Iron Rangers, netting the winner on a Marquette power play.

In three other round robin games the Mid Canada Wildcats had a huge 10-4 win over North Shore/White River Winter Hawks. They followed that game with a 4-1 loss to Thunder Bay and then bounced back to defeat North Bay 3-1.

The line of Megan Dubas, Julia Sayers and Kayla Leishman combined for 12 points in the win against the Winter Hawks. Captain Dubas had five points, scoring once and setting up four others. Sayers had four points with one goal and three assists while rookie Leishman scored once and had two assists.

Ashley Bradley and Robin Koskela each scored twice and added one assist, while Coco Mancuso had one goal and an assist. Jenna Buck and Cassandra Bin rounded out the Wildcats scoring, while single assists went to Megan Parlowe and Andrea Brunetta.

Julia Sayers scored the only goal and Kayla Leishman had the only assist in the 4-1 loss to Thunder Bay Misstix. Sayers’ goal came with 11:33 remaining in the third frame to close the gap to 3-1 but that was all the offence the Wildcats could muster. Thunder Bay outshot Sault Ste Marie 18-5.

In a spirited contest with North Bay, the Sault squad jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the end of the first period with goals from Cassandra Bin and Coco Mancuso. Robin Koskela’s breakaway goal sealed the deal for the Wildcats midway through the second. Megan Dubas, Naomi Taylor and Kayla Leishman earned one assist each in the game.

Next tournament action for the Midget ‘AA’ Mid Canada Wildcats is this weekend (Nov 11-13) in North Bay.

(Submitted by Lorie Springall.)