Canadian Women's Hockey Championships - Clarkson Cup
Brampton Canadette-Thunder 4: Calgary Oval X-Treme 3
March 19, 2009
Kingston, ON

The second game of Canadian Women's Hockey Championships was won by the CWHL's Brampton Canadette-Thunder after a  four  goal comeback in the third period lead by Kingston's own Jayna Hefford to victoriously vanquish the WWHL's Calgary Oval X-Treme 4-3.

The Oval took an early lead scoring just 10 seconds into the opening frame as Gina Kingsbury won the centre ice faceoff back to National Team defensemen, Colleen Sostorics who fed it back to Kingsbury for a breakaway. Kingsbury made a talented play to her backhand to roof it over Brampton's goaltender, Laura Hosier, for a quick 1-0 lead. Kingsbury continued with her scoring prowess deflecting a point shot past a screened Hosier as Calgary went into the dressing room after the first with a 2 ­ 0 lead and a 15-5 lead in shots on net.

The X-Treme continued to put numbers up on the scoreboard, receiving some help from their talented second line as Karen McLaughlin slid a rebound past Hosier to make the game 3-0 mid way through the second period.

Laura Hosier took over for the Thunder , shutting the X-Treme down for the rest of the period , frustrating the Oval's potent offence,  denying several breakaways and second shot opportunities. Brampton managed to rally around her performance,  finally finding the back of the net. An unlucky goal for the Oval as the point shot on goaltender Kendall Newell was redirected right to the stick on Brampton forward Nicole Ruta who buried the puck quickly giving the Thunder a new lease on life. The Thunder came out for the third period a different team,  creating chances and capitalizing on opportunities. Hoiser continued her dominance providing Brampton the safety they required as they stormed Newell's crease with countless scoring opportunities. Gillian Apps, a member of Canada's National Women's team scored Brampton's second goal on a walk out from behind the net drilling the puck over the X-Treme goaltender's shoulder.

Local Kingston girl and National Team standout, Jayna Hefford drew the Thunder even as she converted a Bobbi-Jo Slusar pass past Kendall Newell to send the local fans at the K-Rock Centre into a frenzy. Less than two minutes later, with momentum on their side and with only five minutes left in the third period, Jayna Hefford demonstrated why she is one of the best players in the world. She managed to deke through almost the entire Calgary team striding in on a breakaway only to be stopped by Newell.  Luckily, Nicole Ruta was following up on the play and pushed the puck past the sprawled Newell into the open net, giving Brampton the lead for the first time in the game.

Laura Hosier then took over for the Canadette-Thunder shutting the Oval down for the remainder of the period, despite some glorious opportunities for the X-Treme, including several opportunities late in the game.  Hosier continued to stand her ground, playing with confidence and stopping all but three of Calgary's 46 shots on net.

The player of the game for the Calgary Oval X-Treme was Gina Kingsbury and the player of the game for the Brampton Canadette-Thunder was local Kinsgston product, defenseman Brooke Beazer. With the win, Brampton secures the 3rd place seed going into tomorrow's semi -final as they will take on the 2nd seed, their CWHL rivals, the Montreal stars at 2:00pm at the K-Rock Centre. The other semi-final features the 1st place seed, the Minnesota Whitecaps versus the 4th place seed, the Calgary Oval X-Treme and that game will also be played at Kingston's K-Rock centre at 7:00pm. The winners of both semi-final games will compete for the Clarkson Cup on Saturday, March 21st at 1pm at the K-Rock Centre.