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31 |Thursday, March 30, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community " first m m n M acDonald's goal in double OT gives Oakville 2 -1 victory overToronto By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Annie MacDonald turned just in time to see it coming, but was totally defenceless. W ith no time to brace herself, the Oakville Hornet winger was steamrolled, sent flying onto her back. "It was the hardest hit I've ever taken," she said. And she couldn't have been happier to have been on the receiving end of it. Moments earlier, Oakville defenceman Emily Rickwood had fired a shot from the blueline. MacDonald finished fifth in the league in scoring but had been held without a shot on goal through four periods of the championship game against the Toronto Ae ros. But she had slipped in behind the Aero defence and as she stood on the edge of the crease, she took a swipe at Rickwood' s shot. The Nova Scotia native got just enough of the puck to send it fluttering over the pad of Toronto goalie Madeline Albert, inside the post and into the back of the Aeros' net. Mac Donald wasn't even sure it had gone in, but if she needed confirmation, she got it a split second later when she turned back toward the blueline and was m et head-on by Hor nets' captain Em m a Maltais, arms raised in celebration. W ithin seconds she was buried under a pile of teammates. MacDonald' s tip-in gave the Hornets a 2-1 double overtime victory Sunday and the firstever Provincial W om en's Hockey League title for Oakville, a charter member of the league when it formed in 2004. "This is something so special. It' s such Oakville Hornets' captain Emma Maltais was foiled on this scoring attempt by Toronto Aeros goaltender Madeline Albert in Sunday's championship game of the Provincial Women's Hockey League. The Hornets scored in double overtime to win 2-1 and earn their first Provincial Women's Hockey League title. | photo by Riziero Vertolli - Oakville Beaver a great group of girls. W e're like a family," Brooke Jovanovich said after the Hornets captured the PW H L title in front of a home town crowd at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. "I grew up in this town, in this arena. It' s cool to see all the little girls wearing their Hornets jerseys." They were cheering on a Hornet team that, despite outshooting Toronto 13-7, was trail ing 1-0 through two periods. Even though they clearly controlled the first two periods, the Hornets kicked it up a notch in the third. They pinned the Aeros in their own end for long stretches but with each passing minute the Hornets' odds of lifting the Alumni Cup shrunk. Lexie Adzija led the London Devilettes in scoring last season but when she enrolled at Appleby College last fall, she joined the Hor- nets, adding to a potent Oakville offence. W ith less than six minutes to play, Rickwood rang the puck around the boards. Adzija scooped it up and carried it out from behind the Toronto net. As Adzija reached the right faceoff circle, all the hours of working on her shot in the garage paid off. She roofed the puck over Al bert' s shoulder to tie the game with 5:28 to play in the third. "It was a relief to get that," she said. "We weren't getting the bounces early on, so it was nice to have it go our way." Despite pressing for the winner in the closing minutes, the Hornets were unable to get another, sending the game to overtime. The break gave Toronto a chance to re group and within four minutes of overtime, they had already matched the four shots they LASriM N 'S managed in the 20-m inute third period. Hornets goalie Maddy M acArthur kicked out her pad to stop a dangerous redirec tion. "We were all nervous," MacArthur said. "We were getting lots of shots. All I wanted to do was focus on the next minute, the next save." "It was going back and forth with good scoring chances for both team s," said Hor nets' coach Bradi Cochrane. "W om en' s hock ey, the skill level keeps getting better and it was great to watch, but it was nerve-wrack ing as a coach." After 10 minutes the teams went to a sec ond overtime, this time four-on-four, which seemed to favour the Hornets. W hen Mac Donald finally brought the game to an end, the Hornets poured off the bench. "It was so exciting," Jovanovich said. "It felt like all our hard work, our dedication and our sacrifices had paid off." "It' s a huge accomplishment for the pro gram ," MacDonald said. Cochrane said while the team' s offence rightfully gets a lot of attention -- Oakville averaged almost a goal a game more than the next highest scoring team -- it is a very well-rounded team. Oakville allowed the third fewest goals in the league. "W e've got a bit of everything, and not all of it shows up on the scoresheet -- shot blocking, back checking. We get impact from every line and all three defensive pair ings. And then there are things like their comm itment to fitness, which shows up in a game like today." Maltais and Meaghan Hector were the only players on the only other Hornet team to reach the final four, taking bronze two years ago. "Every team is different, and every year is a new season," said Maltais, who was rec ognized as the league' s leading scorer. "I've see Hornets on p. 32 BADBOYi PRESIDENT S S A L E S EVEAIT! SAVE $400 s c o tt@ g a s fix .c a Call for free in house quote END OF SEASON SA LE s e n io r s ! Special pricing on all gas models · Contemporary and traditional designs ASKFORYOUR EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT! S e e o u r r e v ie w s g a s fix r e p a ir .h o m e s ta r s .c o m