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Ontario women 'almost' invincible
The bad news is captain Cheryl Muranko broke her left wrist yesterday against Nova Scotia when she tripped and fell into the net.
Ontario also gave up its first goal in the tournament in its 11-1 rout of Nova Scotia.
"It would have been great to go in (to the playoff round) with no goals against. But we're not invincible," said Listowel native Karen Droog, who scored two of Ontario's goals.
Nova Scotia head coach Brenda Ryan said the team knew they likely wouldn't beat Ontario, but they at least wanted to be the first team to score on them. "That was the goal we set," she said. "We wanted to break the goose egg."
The Nova Scotia goal came on the power play at 12:49 in the third period when Lindsay Taylor set up 13-year-old Katherine White.
Ontario players were quick to skate out and console goaltender Katie Germain of Sarnia.
Germain said she's just happy Ontario won the game.
"It feels good to win. We went out to work hard. We've been training hard," said Germain, a Grade 12 student at St. Christopher's high school.
Germain and Rachel Barrie have been rotating games in the Ontario net, and Germain noted they have had to concentrate to stay focused during play, which is almost always at the other end of the rink.
Germain was also in goal for the 13-0 rout of Prince Edward Island on the first day of competition and she said it was the toughest game she has ever played mentally. "I only had one shot. You have to stay focused. You work so hard, you want to get out there and do something for the team," she said.
Germain had more of a challenge against Nova Scotia than against P.E.I. though. Nova Scotia players fired 12 shots at her.
Ontario had 60 shots on Nova Scotia goaltender Amanda Herritt yesterday and eight of Ontario's 11 goals were on the power play.
Besides Droog, Michelle Lorion of Mississauga and Cherie Piper of Scarborough each scored two goals. Tracy Palinsky of Brooklin had four assists.
Allison Edgar of Brigden assisted on Lorion's first goal, which came at 9:18 of the second period.
Ontario will play Manitoba, which has a win and two losses, today in Deer Lake.
Droog said it will be tough to play without their captain, but they'll try not to let the loss of Muranko get to them. "We can't let that get us down. It's hard; she's a leader."
Germain said after they lost Muranko, a Cambridge native, in the first period, the players were letting it affect them. "We just said, 'we've got to pull through and do it for Cheryl.' She's so motivating to us."
If Ontario remains on top in its pool, it will play the second-place squad in the other pool tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.
If they win that game, they go to the gold-medal game tomorrow night.
Droog said the team's goal has always been gold.
"We're feeling really confident. But every game is a new challenge," she said.