Manitoulin Lady Wolves lead team and division
The three Manitoulin players, Victoria Pitawanakwat, Deidre Debassige and Kennedy Lanktree, who play for the Sudbury Lady Wolves AA midget squad continue to get recognition as some of the best players in the league. The Wolves who play in the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League are now unbeaten in 15 games and are just coming off a win over fourth place arch rival Ice Boltz from North Bay to maintain sole possession of the Central East Division leader-board. On Thursday it was Wolves against Wolves with the Manitoulin lead squad blanking their sister team 4-0. In the match, Kennedy scored twice and Victoria added a single tally all the while Deidre was playing her usual shut-down defence. With the playoffs right around the corner the Wolves are serving notice that they are a team to be reckoned with. They lead their 10-team division handily but with a 17-2-2 accounting they actually have the best record overall in the huge 46-team league. For more information on the league you can visit: www.llfhl.ca
Mustang Minute!
The Manitoulin Secondary School boys’ hockey team is ready to tear up the all-important second half of their season. They are sporting an impressive 12-8-5 record (including pre-season and tournament games) and came into Division-1 sitting in 3rd place with just St. Charles and Confederation above them. The Mustangs have an important home game against Confed this Friday evening at 7 pm in Little Current. At the end of the month the guys will be in Burlington for the annual Bur Bear Tournament followed by another home game on February 7 back at the NEMI Rec. Centre when Lockerby hits town.
The girls’ team is coming off a solid performance in the Wiky tournament on the weekend where they lost a thrilling final by a score of 3 to 2 to the Northern Storm. With the net empty the Mustangs had tied the game with 56 seconds left on a slick pass from Robin Lentir to Taylor Peltier who made no mistake with her shot. The girls eventually bowed out to a very skilled ladies team, the Northern Storm, which featured a couple of Mustang alumni, Amber Lewis and Katherine Corbiere. All the girls played a gritty hard game.
Yesterday, (Tuesday) the Lady Stangs were on the road to the Carmichael arena for a game versus Marymount and then on Wednesday (today) will play host to one of the league’s top teams, Notre Dame. The game is set for the M’Chigeeng arena with a 3:30 pm game time.
The girls’ team members are Michelle Campbell, Kylie Cranston, Bridgette McDonald, Maggie Strain, Anna Migwans, Meaghan Wall, Robin Lentir, Cassandra Cristo, Taylor Peltier, Sabrina Trudeau, Tess Doane, Deidre Debassige, Danielle Migwans and Meranda Noble. Hats off to the team staff that includes: coach Steve Doane and guest coaches Mike Wesno and Blanche Campbell as well as manager Lisa Corbiere Addison. If you can, try and get out to one of the local MSS teams as they are vying for favourable playoff positions. Go Mustangs go!
Panther Points
Want to catch up with Manitoulin’s rep teams? Here are their next home games, all in Little Current. The 7-6-1 atoms play Sunday at 3 pm against the Nickel City Wild. The 11-1-3 peewees take on Elliot Lake at 10:30 am on Sunday. The 3-8-3 bantams host the minor bantam Bulldogs at 6 pm Sunday, which is also Sponsor Appreciation Day. Finally, the 1-14-3 midgets would love to see you match up against the Nickel City Jr. Sons this Friday night at 9 pm. Go Panthers!
Manitoulin Minor Hockey Spotlight
I am still looking to get some of our local house-league teams into the weekly spotlight. If you are connected to one of the MMHA squads you can drop a note to the email address below. As of Monday the latest MMHA standings were released and it is interesting to see that the division leaders are shared among all of the Island communities.
Here are the top three for each division: In tyke the two Little Current teams: Carter and Brewer are 1-2 and Gore Bay is third. Little Current leads the novice and Mindemoya and M’Chigeeng rounding things out. Up in atom, It is a Gore Bay is undefeated, then M’Chigeeng and Mindemoya for the top-three. In the peewee division, Mindemoya has 9 straight wins followed by Gore Bay and Little Current. The M’Chigeeng bantams are the cream of the crop with a 10-0-1 tally sheet Manitowaning is close behind with a 8-1-2 record and Mindemoya and Wikwemikong in third. Finally, the midget leaders are tight with M’Chigeeng edging Gore Bay and Mindemoya third.
A good sport is good for sports.
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