NAHA Tournament Update - Day 4-

Day 4 saw the Steelers Black team start things off with a game against Little Caesars. The Little Caesars and Steelers teams have developed quite the rivalry, after playing each other 4 times last season at various tournaments, incuding the finals of the NAHA tournament, the quarterfinals of the Stoney Creek tournament, and the semi-finals of the JWHL Challenge Cup.

The Little Caesars line-up was bolstered by Canadian U-18 National team player imports Breanna Frykas and Kaleigh Fratkin.

Steelers teams always seems to bring their A game against Little Caesars, and this game was no exception, as the Steelers finally found their game, playing an aggressive puck pressure game, matching, and at times exceeding, the Little Caesar's team work ethic. Steelers goaltender Kristin Kiyon was once again spectacular in net, and drew attention from college coaches from her play.

The Steelers were down 1-0 after a breakaway goal by Frykas after a Steelers power play had just ended.

However, with 35 seconds left in the game, the Steelers tied it up after Erin Eagles picked up a rebound in a goal mouth scramble, and roofed the puck over a prone Little Caesars goaltender.

This tie, coupled with a loss later in the day to the Connecticut Polar Bears team, ended up eliminating the Little Caesars team from quarterfinal contention.

This game was the most impressive game for the Steelers Black team, and showed that they could compete with one of the top teams in North America.

The Steelers Blue team then played Southern Alberta. The Steelers had a very strong first period outplaying Southern Alberta, and generating many high quality scoring chances including a couple breakaways.

Caitlyn Beauvais scored the Steelers lone goal, with an assist to Alannah Kedra-McCormack.

However, the Steelers were down to 4 defencemen after Tiffany May was hurt in the Little Caesars game and did not dress for the Southern Alberta game. The loss of May was felt, as a very young Steelers defence core started to tire. Southern Alberta scored a goal in the first minute of the second period, and then scored two more unanswered goals for the win.

The Steelers Black third game of the day saw the Steelers faceoff against the Wisconsin Wild. The Steelers had a goal by Katie McPhedran disallowed early on, but outplayed the Wild, and finally broke through in the second period, when Hayley Boyd, went strong to the net, and picked up a rebound off a Kedra-McCormack shot, and fired a hard shot past the Wild goaltender with authority.

Kedra-McCormack, then sniped a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, to give the Steelers an insurance marker, which it would need when the Wisconsin Wild scored a goal in the last minute of play in the game.

Kristin Kiyon was in net, and recorded the win for the Steeler black team.

Tiffany May returned to the Steelers defence core for the game, but Brittany Kimber was hurt at the end of the Southern Alberta game, so the Steelers defence core remained at 4.

The Steelers Blue team, started the day with a game against the Assabet Valley team. The Assabet Valley team ended up winning the NAHA tournament. The game was tied 0-0 after the first period, as the Steelers blue matched Assabet Valley's intensity, but Assabet Valley finally broke through with 3 goals in the second period. Carly Butcher was outstanding in net for the Steelers blue team.

The Steelers then played Team Alaska, and scored two goals in the first period, and won the game 2-0. Rosanne Wallace was in net for the Steelers and picked up the shutout.

This concluded pool play, in which the Steelers Blue team ended up facing 3 of what ended up being the top 4 teams in the tournament in Durham, Assabet and Dawson.