played the USAHIL Colorado Regional championships this past weekend...
Girls on most teams, except for the Denver area teams...had to listen to snide parent comments regarding girl abilities when we got beat in Squirt Div round robin game 6-0...although the last ten minutes was 0-0...
In championship game, with 4 minutes to go in first half, Denver up 3-0 on the scoreboard, Polar Bears ended up with a two-man disadvantage for 1:46 (yikes!) The little, "superior-attitude, now we'll blow this wide open" comments started coming from the opposing bench...
Caitlin and Rose, in front of Brittany in goal, went to work. They were everywhere, back and forth, up and back, keeping a good line of support to each other, and protecting the slot with a tremendous determination. Twenty seconds into the power play, Denver got their first shot on net. Everybody on both teams converged on the diving Brittany. Caitlin and Rose got there first, and simultaneously slammed their sticks down in front of their prone goalkeeper. No Denver player touched her. The girls went on from there like dervishes for the entire 1:46...
The three girls killed the whole penalty...
As Alex went screaming onto the floor to bring the P'Bears back to full strength, the whole arena stood and applauded the girls' effort. The rest of the afternoon, we heard several parents comment on how "those three girls" shut down the high powered Denver team attack on that penalty kill.
The Denver team went on to take the championship, deservedly so. Outshot 35-24, the young man in goal for the Bandits got everything the P'Bears could throw at him. With three shut outs in three games, this guy won his team the championship.
The Polar Bears "coed" squirt team consists of six girls and "our token three" boys. The girls proved they deserved to be there, we'll see you at Nationals. These six girls will also be playing in the Girls 12's division, and we'll see if Bears can climb the ladder of success in two divisions in the same year.
It's already a fun summer, and it's getting better all the time...
<font color=purple>DannyG</font color=purple>
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