The Thunder Bay Hank the Tank Welding Bantam A Queens capped off a successful season by winning the recent championship at the Stars Cup tournament in Winnipeg.
Thunder Bay played near flawless hockey throughout the tourney going unbeaten in four games, while allowing only one goal against, backed by the stellar netminding of Callie Bevilaqua who posted a trio of shutouts along the way en route to the gold medal.
Opening up against the Winnipeg Wings, the Queens dominated rolling to a 7-0 victory.
Hanna Johnston notched the eventual game-winner with the only tally of the first period on an assist from Kristen D’Angelo.
The club continued to shine in the middle stanza getting tallies from Breanne Tessier and Emma Cahill.
Adding helpers in the session were McKenna McCarthy, with a pair, Cahill and Kristen Simcic.
Thunder Bay tacked on four more in the third to complete the romp receiving efforts from Johnston, Gabrielle Gascoigne, Jayda MacArthur, and Kate Poulter.
Setting up those goals were Courtney Simpson, Tia Lampo, Poulter, MacArthur and Gascoigne with Bevilacqua posting shutout No. 1 on the weekend.
Next up the Queens took on the Transcona Stars and once again Bevilacqua was spotless helping her side skate to a 5-0 win.
After a scoreless first, Poulter fired the winner as she finished off the work of Gascoigne and Simpson.
Four more markers in the third finished things off for Thunder Bay as MacArthur, Tessier, Lampo and Cahill all found the back of the net.
Gascoinge, Poulter, Cahill, McCarthy, Johnston, D’Angelo, Cahill, Tessier and Kayla Etreni all supplied additional assists on those efforts.
Game 3 saw the Queens rally to pull out a dramatic 2-1 triumph over the Morden Hawks thanks to Johnston striking shorthanded with just 18 seconds remaining to give Thunder Bay the win.
Morden grabbed the lead after one period on the only goal the club would allow in the tourney, but a power play marker by Poulter midway through the second tied things up setting the stage for Johnston’s late-game heroics.
The team’s 3-0 record in round robin play earned them a berth in the title game where Bevilacqua was stellar once again as she registered her third shutout of the weekend as she backstopped the Queens to a 1-0 victory over the Dryden Sunset Granite Snipers.
It was D’Angelo who supplied the lone goal of the gold medal contest as she scored at 5:14 of the first period with an assist going to Kayla Etreni.
After that Bevilacqua did the rest turning aside everything the Snipers could throw at her backstopping her team to their second tournament win of the season to wrap up a very successful year.
