Women's Hockey League report

Regular season action is complete and the playoffs set following last weekend's slate in the Sault Ste. Marie's Women's Hockey League.

Source for Sports completed an unbeaten season to finish in first place, the first team to accomplish an undefeated season in WHL.

The playoffs commence on Sunday as the top five teams will play for the 'A' Division title and the remaining four teams will compete for the 'B' Division championship.

SooToday.com will publish a weekly report of games from the WHL provided by Lorie Springall.

*** WEEK NINE REPORT: By Lorie Springall

Final playoff positions are set after regular season games wrapped up Monday night in Echo Bay.

With 8 wins and 4 ties, Source for Sports quietly captured the regular season championship, becoming the first team in league history to finish league play without a loss. They'll put their unblemished record on the line this Sunday afternoon at McMeeken when playoffs commence.

The top five teams will play for the 'A' Division title and the remaining four teams will compete for the 'B' Division championship.

Finishing second was Skip's Kweok with a record of 8 wins and 4 losses. They open the playoffs Sunday at 4pm against fourth place Investors Group. Lafarge will try to topple Source for Sports at 5pm.

On Monday night in Echo Bay, Algoma Insurance will play Source for Sports at 8:30pm and Investors Group faces off against Lafarge at 9:30pm. The 'B' Division round begins Monday night with Palmer Paving and Country Way meeting at 6:30pm and White Oak Paint and Crawford's Canines at 7:30pm.

In the final week of regular season action, Algoma Insurance blanked Investors Group 2-0 with goals from Lori Swan and Kristen Nelson. Sherri Collins recorded her second shut out. Debbie Beauchamp, Jennifer Blahey and Theresa Glover each had one assist.

The win tied Algoma with Skip's Kweok for second place, setting up a showdown between the two in the league's final game.

After a scoreless first period, Skip's offence was too much to handle as they skated to a 5-1 win in front of a pro-Skip's crowd. Mona Jones had three points with two goals and one assist. Pam Booth and Rose Jones each had a goal and an assist. Debbie (Digger) Desgagne scored once while single assists went to Christine Robertson and Amanda Fata.

Lori Swan had the lone goal for Algoma Insurance with a precision shot from the point over the shoulder of goalie Marion Seymour. Michelle Irwin had the only assist on the play.

Source for Sports shut out Country Way 4-0 and then defeated Investors Group 4-1. Lisa Venier was on fire in both games scoring twice and adding an assist in the 4-0 win and then scoring a natural hattrick against Investors Group.

Karen Armstrong picked up her league-leading 4th shut out while Rhonda Crozier and Lori Ballstadt had the other goals against Country Way. Jody Rebek had two assists with singles going to Donna May Sayers-Lariviere and Ballstadt.

In the win over Investors, Crozier scored once while Ballstadt, Julie Laroque and Debbie Sacco each had one assist. Scoring for Investors Group was Ellen (MacDash) MacDougall. Lisa Case and Carrie Mancuso had the assists.

White Oak Paint ended the regular season with two wins including a 1-0 victory against Palmer Paving. Rookie goaltender Joy Agawa earned her first shut out and Tanya Dowding had the winner with ten minutes remaining. Lisa Rowlinson had the only assist.

Wearing a huge smile following the game, Lori (Big Bird) Bonnell commented on the accomplishment.

"That was a fun game to play and a fun team to play against. What a great game. Joy just keeps getting better and better." Referring to a gutsy play by Agawa to preserve her shut out, Bonnell said, "Diving on the puck like that was awesome. Good for her. She deserved to win that game."

In a 5-3 win against Lafarge, it took an empty net goal by Julie Hodkinson to silence a Lafarge threat late in the third. Lisa Rowlinson scored the winner, Tanya Dowding had two goals and Laurie Laudadio scored once. Barb Willoughby had two assists with Hodkinson and Elaine Angelic with one each.

Lafarge's Brenda (Bruiser) Huibers scored her first goal of the season. Michelle Dillenbeck and pick up player Suzanne Dunn also scored once while assists went to Alicia Pollock, Geri Miller and pick up players Cathy Toni and Jaime Adair.

Palmer Paving finished league play with a 2-1 win over Crawford's Canines. Pick up player Lisa Venier had the winning goal midway through the second period. Suzanne Dunn had Palmer's other goal with Crystal Earl and Sandy Glibota getting the assists.

Shelli Ubriaco replied for the Canines. Sarah Fischer and Janis Dose had the helpers.

*** FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS:

(wins-losses-ties-points)

Source For Sports 8-0-4-20 Skip's Kweok 8-4-0-16 Algoma Insurance 6-4-2-14 Investors Group 6-4-1-13 Lafarge 6-4-1-13 Palmer Paving 3-4-5-11 White Oak Paint 4-7-1-9 Country Way 4-8-0-8 Crawford's Canines 1-8-2-4

*** PLAYOFF SCHEDULE:

Playoffs will consist of a Round Robin series in each Division. Division A involves 1st-5th place teams in regular season. Division B involves 6th-9th place teams in regular season. Semi-finals will involve top 4 teams in each division after the Round Robin series.

Sunday March 6:

4pm Div A: 2nd Skip's Kweok vs. 4th Investors Group 5pm Div A: 5th Lafarge vs. 1st Source for Sports

Monday March 7:

6:30pm Div B: 6th Palmer Paving vs. 8th Country Way 7:30pm Div B: 7th White Oak Paint vs. 9th Crawford's Canines 8:30pm Div A: 1st Source for Sports vs. 3rd Algoma Insurance 9:30pm Div A: 4th Investors Group vs. 5th Lafarge

Monday March 14:

6:30pm Div A: 5th Lafarge vs. 2nd Skip's Kweok 7:30pm Div A: 3rd Algoma Insurance vs. 4th Investors Group 8:30pm Div B: 8th Country Way vs. 7th White Oak Paint 9:30pm Div B: 9th Crawford's Canines vs. 6th Palmer Paving

*** WHL PLAYOFF RULES:

1. A tie will stand in Round Robin games. All semis and final games will be played to a winner.

2. To allow for overtime, the 3-minute warm up will be strictly enforced. GAMES MUST BEGIN ON TIME.

3. One 30-second time-out per team is allowed in semis and finals only.

4. The only Pick Up Players allowed in playoffs will be goalies and beginner players (up to a maximum of 10 skaters.) Any pick-up goalie/beginner must NOT have played pick-up for that team in ANY previous 2005 WHL game.

5. Home team must provide timekeepers. (Home team will start with a 1-0 deficit if they do not provide a timekeeper, on time!)

6. After Round Robin play, teams will be ranked 1st to 4th place according to most points in round robin (2 for each win, 1 for a tie.) If two or more teams are tied, tie-breakers will be as follows: -winner of head-to-head game (if 2 teams tied) -fewest goals allowed in round robin -most goals scored in round robin -fewest penalty minutes in round robin -fewest penalty minutes in regular season -coin toss

7. All other WHL regular season rules will apply.