Three Orillia teams capped stellar weekends on the ice Sunday afternoon by winning their divisional titles at the 22nd annual Orillia Girls Hockey Association tournament.
The Orillia Hawks peewee B team skated to a 1-0 win over the Twin Centre Hericanes in a nail-biting, tense contest befitting a championship game. Neither team could find the back of the net through two periods, but the Hawks struck for an early third-period goal and then held off a late Hericane surge to win. When the final whistle blew, the Hawks players fled the bench to celebrate with their goaltender, who made numerous strong saves to help backstop her team to the well-deserved victory in front of many cheering fans at Rotary Place.
While that game was going on, a pair of Orillia teams clashed in the Senior B title game. The Orillia Senior C squad got off to a fast start and cruised to a 3-0 victory over the Orillia Senior B team.
The Orillia bantam BB team made it a hat trick of victories for the home side when they earned a thrilling 1-0 decision over Timmins in the championship game at the Rama MASK. The Hawks went undefeated over the weekend and allowed just two goals in their three games.
Not all divisions had completed play as of 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon. This year’s tournament started Friday and, over the weekend, 107 teams participated in more than 200 games in a wide range of age groups and divisions. It was the largest number of teams ever to compete in the annual event that has grown each year.
