2009 National Women's Under-18 Championship

ONTARIO RED DOES IT AGAIN; SILVER LINING FOR ONTARIO BLUE

SURREY, B.C. – Ontario Red did it again, winning gold for the sixth straight time by beating Ontario Blue 5-1 in the final matchup of this year’s national championship at South Surrey Arena.

Ontario Red’s lead started early in the game, with Jamie Lee Rattray (Kanata, Ont.) securing her team’s first goal just 14 seconds into the game on a pass from Kelly Terry (Whitby, Ont.) Rattray kept up the momentum for Red in the first period by putting the puck on the stick of Jenna McParland (Schreiber, Ont.), who made it 2-0 going into the intermission.

Ontario Blue’s chances at a championship win started to fade further away in the first few minutes of the second, with Kelly Babstock (Mississauga, Ont.) setting up a Shannon Stoneburgh (Pickering, Ont.) goal. But there was a glimmer of hope for Blue when Vanessa Welten (Crysler, Ont.) cracked the goose egg to put a marker up on the scoreboard for her team.

That was the only Blue goal that Red would allow, with Rattray assisting both Shannon Doyle (Baldwin, Ont.) and McParland – who also assisted Doyle. Those last two goals would make it 5-1 and set the outcome of this year’s championship in stone, with Ontario Red coming out on top.

But Ontario Blue didn’t walk away empty-handed, winning silver for the first time in National Women’s Under-18 Championship history. Although the provincial rivals competed hard during the game, after the awards were handed out the players toppled on top of each other to celebrate Ontario’s overall success at the tournament.