Brantford
Jocelyn St. Clair and the Southwood Sabres didn’t get their rematch with the Elmira Lancers.
“We’ll take this. This is our revenge, I think. They can have WCSSAA, because we’ll take CWOSSA,” said the Sabres forward, who scored two goals in the central western regional final yesterday to lead the defending CWOSSA champions to a 2-1 win over the Guelph CVI Gaels at the Gretzky Centre.
The Lancers, who handed the Sabres their first Waterloo County loss in three years last week in the district final, didn’t even make it to the gold medal game, losing to Guelph in the semifinal 5-4.
Southwood reached the championship game by edging Centre Wellington by the same score of 5-4.
Unlike the high-scoring semis, Southwood and Guelph played a tight-checking game and limited the amount of really good scoring chances.
“Our defence was very sound today,” St. Clair said.
“We couldn’t have done it without them. We all dug deep, everybody played great and it really showed.”
Luck has little to do with it, as St. Clair was moved back to the blue line in the dying minutes of the game and she was paired with Emily Marte to bar the door once Guelph pulled their goalie with a minute remaining for an extra attacker.
It proved to be the right move for Sabres coach Steve Stockwood, as Guelph captain Janna Harbin walked into the slot with 10 seconds remaining, but St. Clair lunged to get her stick in front of the shot and watch the puck bound harmlessly into the corner.
“I was going to throw my body at it at that point,” St. Clair said with a laugh.
“With a minute, 30 left they told us we were going on the ice and we weren’t coming off. So we had our work cut out for us.”
It was also St. Clair who got things started for Southwood midway through the first, as she took Emily Watson’s pass from behind the net and backhanded a shot by Guelph goalie Meagan Carty.
It was St. Clair again 50 seconds into the second, as she grabbed a shot from the point that squibbed under Carty’s arm and right on her stick with a wide open net.
Guelph put a bit of a scare in the Sabres a minute later when Harbin’s shot hit Cori Moretti in the pants and slipped by goalie Alex Mugford just four seconds after Abbie Gray went off for interference.
After Harbin came close to tying the score by dinging a shot off the post midway through the second, Mugford was unbeatable.
Even Alex Chisholm couldn’t get it by Mugford when she was sprung on a breakaway, as the veteran netminder coolly turned the shot aside with her blocker.
“I saw her look to blocker side, so I kind of knew, but at this level you can’t be sure. I hoped I was right,” Mugford said after the game.
Now, it will be up to Mugford to get the Sabres farther than the quarterfinals, their best finish at OFSAA.
Last year, we didn’t make it to semis and we want a medal this time.”
The Sabres will head to OFSAA in Ottawa, March 23-26