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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" HALTON TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com 31 | Thursday, March 27, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Outbattling the Blades Christina Kessler blanks Boston to lead the Toronto Furies to their first Clarkson Cup title By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff The Toronto Furies had just one win in their previous five games, dropping them to fourth place in the Canadian Women's Hockey League standings. As they sat on a bus for 8 1/2 hours bound for Boston, some doubts began to creep in. Once they reached Beantown, they were set to face the defending champion Blades, who had been reinforced by four players returning from the Olympics. "Some of the girls were saying on the way there, `It's not fair that they get all these Olympians back. They're already tough enough to beat,'" said Toronto goalie Christina Kessler. "`Now they're even more talented.'" Boston outshot Toronto 46-21 in the first game of the weekend and won 4-2, led by two goals by U.S. Olympian Hilary Knight. The next day, in the final game of the regular season, Toronto matched the Blades shot-for-shot. Down 3-1 midway through the third period, the Furies rallied to tie the game before the Blades pulled out a 4-3 overtime victory. The loss did not discourage the Furies, though. Instead, it provided the team with the confidence it needed with the Clarkson Cup tournament set to begin in a few days. "The bus trip back, there was a total change in atmosphere," Kessler said. "Everyone realized we can certainly compete with them, no matter who they had on the team. It was a huge weekend for our team." Saturday, matched up against Boston again in the Canadian Women's Hockey League final in Markham, Toronto drew on that experience -- and leaned on its goalie. Toronto may have lacked Boston's Olympic clout -- Natalie Spooner was the only Fury player to lace up the skates in Sochi -- but it did have one of the best netminders in NCAA history. Kessler stopped 25 shots, including a third-period breakaway by Knight, as the teams played 60 minutes of scoreless hockey. "I think that Hilary Knight has one of the toughest breakaway moves because she has so many options," said Toronto backup goalie Sami Jo Small. "It showed that (Kessler) was really on her game. It was an incredible save at an opportune moment." Toronto Furies teammates cheer on Christina Kessler as she is called upon to accept her MVP award after shutting out Boston in the Clarkson Cup final Saturday in Markham. Kessler stopped 112 of the 117 shots she faced in the tournament and against the league's top two teams, allowed just one goal over the final 177 minutes.| photo by Nick Iwanyshyn / Metroland Media Group Those last two wins were even more meaningful because our record against them wasn't great. Heading to overtime against Boston again, the Furies wasted little time. Britni Smith scored 33 seconds in to the extra period as Toronto won 1-0 to capture its first league title. Kessler, who finished the tournament with a 1.20 goalsagainst average and a .957 save percentage, was named the most valuable player. "I actually surprised myself how well everything came together," said Kessler, the goalie coach for the Oakville Hornets of the Provincial Women's Hockey League. "But everyone stepped up, from the first liners to the shot blockers. I've never seen our team play like that. It was really nice to see everyone sacrificing themselves." Toronto opened the tournament with a 3-2 victory over Calgary. The next day, two power-play goals early in the first period were enough to give Boston a 2-1 win. In its final round-robin game, ToChristina Kessler ronto faced the Montreal Stars -- a team that lost only twice in 23 regular season games -- with the winner advancing to the final. The Oakville Trafalgar graduate played some outstanding hockey during her collegiate career with Harvard. She still ranks among the top four in NCAA history in career goalsagainst average (1.36), save percentage (.941) and shutouts (25), but facing a must-win situation in the top women's league in the world, she took her game to a new level. After allowing the second goal against Boston, Kessler played 177 minutes, faced 78 shots and allowed just one goal. That came early in the third period against Montreal and tied the game 1-1. It remained that way through overtime, sending the game to a shootout, where she faced Canadian Olympic captain Caroline Ouellette, CWHL leading scorer and MVP Ann-Sophie Bettez and two-time gold medallist Sarah Vaillancourt. "I was actually more nervous in regulation than I was in the shootout. I had faith that one of our players would score," the 25-year-old said, before adding with a laugh, "They always score on me in practice." Kessler stopped Ouellette and Bettez and when Natalie Spooner scored for Toronto, it left just one player -- Vaillancourt, Kessler's former Harvard teammate -- between Toronto and the championship game. "Sarah has two moves. She shoots or she fakes a couple of times and then goes upstairs on the backhand," said Kessler, who twice represented Canada at the 4 Nations Cup. "She actually had a breakaway on me earlier in the game and she caught me off guard (faking the shot and going to the backhand) but luckily it slid by the post." In the shootout, Vaillancourt went to the forehand, trying to go five-hole, but Kessler turned her away, bringing her teammates rushing on to the ice to bury her under a pile of white and blue sweaters. There would be an even bigger celebration the next day, one that carried on past midnight as the team watched its win on the big screens at Real Sports in Toronto with the Clarkson Cup proudly on display. "Those last two wins were even more meaningful because our record against both those teams wasn't great. And for us to do even better when they got all those players back, it was a great feeling," Kessler said. "To get your name engraved on (the Clarkson Cup), something I hope is the equivalent of the Stanley Cup in 10 years, you can't ask for more."