Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
What was scheduled as a regular game between the NDSS Golden Hawks girls hockey team and the Bayridge Blazers morphed into a friendly exhibition match.
With Blazers short on numbers and unable to ice a team for a competitive league game, the two teams opted to still go ahead and have some fun. NDSS went ahead and ‘loaned’ some of their players for the game and the end result was a less intense hockey game with plenty of smiles on both benches.
Fittingly enough, the game ended in a 2-2 tie, with Abby DeHaan and Amber Weese scoring for the Hawks.
Maddy Burgess makes a pad save. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
Officially the game went down as a 1-0 forfeit win for the Hawks, which improves their record to 5-0-1 on the year.
“That game will put us in first place,” said Hawks head coach Chad Miller. “We still have a few games to go, but right now I think our win against Holy Cross (on Jan. 11) was pretty big, that put us ahead of the pack. If we win from here on out we’ve already put ourselves in a position where we can end up in first.”
Holy Cross sits two points back of NDSS, with a record of 4-1-1. As the season enters the home stretch, it seems entirely possible those two teams could once again meet in the KASSAA finals, which they’ve done in the previous four years. NDSS won last year’s final, ending a three year losing streak.
“We’ve seen a lot of them,” Miller said of Holy Cross. “But the league keeps getting better, there’s no given. The best you can do is put yourself in the best position you can going into the playoffs and then go from there.”
By clinching the top seed, NDSS would have home ice advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs and face the lowest seeds remaining. The finals will be played in Kingston regardless of the top seeded team.
“A lot of the girls from last year are (still on this year’s team) so they know what it takes,” said Miller. “But you’ve still go to bring your ‘A’ game.”
Thursday’s game was NDSS’ last before entering the exam break. They won’t be back on the ice until Feb. 7 when they host the KCVI Blues.
Also playing their final games before the break was the Golden Hawks’ girls’ volleyball teams. The junior girls topped the Granite Ridge Gryphons in four sets while the NDSS seniors swept their match. The win moves the juniors to 3-6 on the year and puts them into the final playoff position at eighth place. The seniors are 3-5, placing them seventh. They’ll have two games after the break to try to lock down a playoff berth and perhaps climb the rankings.