March 20, 2009

Kingston, ON

National Canadian Women’s Championship Finals

Montreal Stars 4:Brampton Canadette-Thunder 1

Montreal Stars frustrated the Brampton Canadette-Thunder 4 to 1 in Friday’s semi-final game in the Clarkson Cup. Montreal’s young phenom Marie-Philip Poulin and veteran goalie Kim St-Pierre made the difference as the Stars crushed local Jayna Hefford’s bid to play in the Canadian Women’s Hockey Championships in front of a hometown crowd.

Brampton came out of the gate in full stride with tons of fore-checking and back-checking. Their early pressure resulted in the first goal of the game on a power play while Montreal’s player was in the box for
hooking. Kathleen Kauth won the face-off, putting it back to Tiffany Hagge. Gillian Apps got a stick on Hagge’s shot on the blocker of Montreal’s National Team goalie, Kim St-Pierre.

Montreal answered with two quick goals by Caroline Ouellette and Stefanie Bourbeau giving the Stars the edge 2 to 1 going into the dressing room after the first period. Both teams came out flying in the second, but Brampton was not able to solve Kim St-Pierre as she made several spectacular saves to preserve the lead.

Hosier wasn’t about to be upstaged by St-Pierre and gave her Brampton teammates a reason to believe by making several key saves on odd-man rushes and breakaways. However, with just over a minute left in thesecond period a scramble to the left of the net of Hosier resulted in Bourbeau once again finding the back of the net from a cross-crease pass by Lisa-Marie Breton.

The third saw plenty of action in both ends including several key chances by local Kingstonian, Jayna Hefford, during a five-on-three power play advantage. In the end St-Pierre stood her ground, surrounded
by her determined Montreal defense who turned away every Brampton opportunity.

Brampton attempted a final rally, pulling Hosier with two minutes left in the game, but Poulin solidified Montreal’s victory with an empty-net goal.  Players of the game were Bourbeau for Montreal and Apps for Brampton.

The tournament continues with the second semi-final game at 7 pm with Calgary Oval X-Treme facing off against the Minnesota Whitecaps at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston. The National championship game will be held Saturday, March 21 at 1 pm at the K-Rock Centre.