Girls 12U Tier 1

Squad comes from behind the beat Victory Honda, 4-3, in overtime on March 4

Photo by Michael Larson

Little Caesars won the Girls 12 and Under National Bound state tournament with a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Victory Honda in overtime on March 4 at the Taylor Sportsplex.

Despite that most of the players were under five-feet tall, there was nothing little about the Little Caesars 12 and girl’s team’s performance at the MAHA state tournament on March 4 at the Taylor Sportsplex.

The Little Caesars ‘team showed poise and determination, battling back from a one-goal deficit late in the third period to beat a scrappy Victory Honda team, 4-3, in overtime.

The game started out tight, with the two teams skating hard as soon as the first puck was dropped. Although the Little Caesar squad took an early advantage, out-shooting the Victory Honda team 5-1 in the first period, neither team was able to find the back of the net in the game's first frame.

In the second period, the Victory Honda team took advantage of a lucky break to open the game's scoring. After Victory Honda’s Nicole Renault took a high sticking penalty at 7:42 of the second, Little Caesars went on the power play.

But even though it was Little Caesars who had the player advantage, it was Victory Honda's Kelly Harris who ultimately came away with the big play. Harris scored a short-handed goal at 6:27 of the period to give Victory Honda a 1-0 lead.

Honda's advantage proved to be short-lived though, as Little Caesars' Allison MacDonald answered back less than four minutes left with a shorthanded goal of her own to tie the game, 1-1.

Later in the second period, Victory Honda took the lead again when Nichole LaFlamme took a pass from Kaylyn Schroka and scored a powerplay goal with less than two minutes remaining in the frame. Going into the third period, the Victory Honda team enjoyed a 2-1 lead.

After the second intermission, Little Caesars continued the game's trend of alternating goals. At 6:34 of the third period, the Caesars squad started its journey back into the game when Tiffany Strazzulla scored a power-play goal from Sydney Brickey.

With the game tied at 2-2, Victory Honda took the lead late in the third period when Cassidy Tucker tallied a goal that was hotly contested. Little Caesars' goalie Alexis Shaw stopped two shots in a row, but on the second, the young keeper allowed a rebound to squirt out. She sprawled and seemingly covered the puck. The referee signaled that the puck never crossed the line, but a whistle was never blown to stop play. With play still live, Tucker crept right in and scored an easy one.

The goal gave Victory Honda a one-goal lead with a minute and a half left in the game. However, the Little Caesars team wasn't quite ready to home. Mary Menefee took a pass from Brickey and scored the game-tying goal with just 25 seconds left in the game.

Regulation ended in a 3-3 tie and when play resumed in the extra session, it didn't take long for Little Caesars team to show that they weren't ready for their season to be over just yet.

Little Caesars won the game, the state title and the chance to go play in the national tournament later on this month in San Jose (CA) when Rachael Booth scored the game winning goal just two minutes into the overtime period.

The goal was assisted by Noelle Walko, while Shaw stopped 19 shots in the game and was named the tournament's MVP.

"We showed a lot of backbone tonight," Little Caesars head coach Scott Brickey said. "We always talk about the game not being done until the final horn goes. We just kept at it. There is a lot of character out here. We are going to go out West and do the best we can."

Girls 12U Notebook

In the first game of the three-team tournament, the Victory Honda team took on a very hard working, but very inexperienced Rochester team and came away with a 12-1 victory. Tucker was Victory Honda's leading scorer, tallying four goals in the win. Kelly Harris had a hat trick, Nichole LaFlamme and Nicole Renault each had two goals and Mellissa Channell scored one. Kalli Bates had four assists in the win, while Harris added three. Rochester's lone goal was scored by Rachel Kelly… Brickey and his team also beat Victory Honda in the preliminary round, 5-3, with the help of two power play goals. Nicole Renault tallied two points for Victory Honda in the loss.

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