THUNDER BAY – Sports – The Sportop Queens sweep St. Mary’s Academy; OPG midget A’s fall in semifinal at Ice Breaker Cup. It was a successful weekend for the Thunder Bay Sportop midget AA Queens who completed a three-game sweep of the St. Mary’s Academy Flames of Winnipeg over the weekend.
Meanwhile the Ontario Power Generation midget A Queens, competing in the midget AA division, fell in the semifinals at the Ice Breaker Cup in Sault Ste. Marie.
Against St. Mary’s two of the games went Saturday with the Sportop Queens winning by scores of 3-1 and 7-1 before following that up with a 5-3 victory Sunday.
The line of Brownyn Bolduc, Kaley Tienhaara and Sam Strassburger combined for six goals while the trio of Natasha Nicholl, Emily Armstrong and Drue Ahola struck five times.
Emily Oleksuk and Karli Nummikoski playing with affiliate Samantha Isbell netted two tallies.
Chipping in with a pair of markers were the club’s defensive corps who also helped kill off all but two of the St. Mary’s Academy power plays.
The Thunder Bay goaltending duo of Jayde Turcotte and Sydney Isbell combined for .943 save percentage over the weekend facing on average 27 shots against per game.
As for OPG Queens they finished up in the Sault with a 1-2-1 record.
They opened up with a 3-1 setback to the host Sault Ste. Marie Wildcats with Allison Pages scoring the lone goal with Kelsey Henry and Lexxi Saarinen drawing assists.
Next up came a 4-1 triumph over the Marquette Sentinels paced by Marielle Orr’s two-goal performance.
Whitney Scott and Pages notched the other markers in the victory.
Following a 5-0 defeat to the Sudbury Wolves the Queens pulled out a 2-2 tie with the Keweenaw Storm of Michigan to earn the semifinal berth, but were blanked 3-0 by Sudbury in that contest to end their tourney.
The Sportop Queens next tournament action will be the Minnesota Thoroughbreds Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 23-25 in St. Paul, Minn., while the OPG midget A side will next compete in a tourney Dec. 7-9 in the annual Queens Showcase at Fort William First Nation Arena.