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Upper Valley U12 Storm Have Much to Celebrate

Upper Valley U12 Girls Storm Experience Another Successful Weekend

There was much to celebrate this past weekend for the U12 Girls Storm Ice Hockey team. The Storm’s home rink was repaired and ready for the team to

use, they outshot their opponents 84-27, and improved their overall record to 4-1-1.

The team arrived at the Hartford BOR rink Saturday afternoon and walked into a surreal looking scene. The weather outside was a balmy 50 degrees causing the rink to be encased in a shroud of fog, spectators were forced to wipe the glass in order to see the players on the ice. Even the fans who took the higher ground of the bleachers found it interesting to see fog swirling around the players. But as the fog lifted, the U12 Lady Storm realized that they were playing their first game in the newly

repaired rink, and celebrated the fact by taking the Essex Major Lady Sting to a victory of 2-1.

The game was scoreless throughout the first period until Courtney Murray popped the puck into the twine from a scramble in front of the Essex

Goalie. Karli Swensen and Morgan Morrill were responsible for assisting Murray’s goal which came with fifteen seconds left on the clock. Essex tied up the match twenty seconds into the second period with a goal from Tiffany Barnes. The U12 Lady Storm refused to allow their efforts to result in a tie game, when Morrill tapped a pass to Madi Lyford near the blue line allowing Lyford to deftly skate around three Essex defenders to pop the winning goal past the Essex goalie in order to assure a 2-1 win over Essex thirty seconds into the third period.

Devanne Defelice and Lauren Goodell played one of their strongest games on defense this season keeping the Essex Lady Sting from tormenting their

goalie. Samantha Roberts came off the injured reserve list to contribute well on the forward line. Colleen McDermott and Delia Nahabedian gave a good effort right up to the final buzzer.

Mike Lyford remarked after the game “The score certainly did not reflect the absolute intensity that our team played with today. It was very

frustrating for them to have an incredible 58 shots on net with only two making it past a very skilled goalie. The girl’s unending determination

was impressive. I was very proud.”

Kelsey Thibodeau felt that the key to the game was, “Our team worked well together instead of playing individually.”

Katie Alvord held tight in the net for the Lady Storm having 7 saves for the game, with several of them occurring at crucial times during the game.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Lady Storm took on their toughest competitor of the season when they traveled to Montpellier to take on a young but very skilled Barre U12

team. The Lady Storm started out slower than usual in the first period,allowing Barre to take control of the game with two unassisted goals from

Julia Ormsby. Barre only allowed the Lady Storm to take two shots on goal the entire fifteen minutes.

Luckily, a very different Lady Storm team stepped onto the ice in the second period, and took control of the game. Courtney Murray passed to

Meghan Kebalka sprinting down the ice to flip the puck up over the Barre goalie’s left shoulder to put the Storm on the board. Barre attempted to

deflate the Lady Storm’s momentum by scoring a goal with five minutes left of the second period bringing their lead to 2-1.

The Lady Storm refused to be held back. With only seconds left on the clock, coach Bob Murray beckoned from the bench for the girls to attempt a

special setup play from a faceoff in front of the Barre goalie. As if they had done this play hundreds of times, Courtney Murray won the faceoff

and muscled a pass to Madi Lyford who found Meghan Kebalka hanging out on the left side of the crease to slam one between the pipes, decreasing the Barre lead to 3-2 with only one second left of play in the second period.

The Lady Storm retreated to the locker room to strategize while the ice was made before the third period and emerged refreshed and ready to show the Barre team that they were not finished with this game. Five minutes into the third period Madi Lyford passed to Meghan Kebalka who skated around four Barre defenders to finish her hat-trick of the game.

Unfortunately, even though the Lady Storm outshot Barre 26-19 for the game, they were not able to break the tie in the third period.

Mike Lyford commended coach Bob Murray’s insight on the unique faceoff play during the second period. “The girls have not had the opportunity to practice that specific play in practice, yet they listened and responded well to Coach Murray’s direction. It was quite impressive and shows how skilled our team is this year.”

Karli Swensen reflected, “It was a very aggressive game and we didn’t give the Barre team the chance to win the game.”

Aubrie Mazurek made a key save, stopping a puck that slid under the goalie’s pads just inches before it crossed the goal line. Heather Dexter

and Jenna Yee skated well during the Sunday afternoon match. Katie Alvord and Erin Hudson shared time in the goal making a combined effort of 16 solid saves.

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