Ice Boltz upset unbeaten Thunder; off to Esso Cup Gold Medal game

BURNABY, B.C. – Chloe Dion had 1 goal and 2 assists as the North Bay Ice Boltz shocked the Edmonton Thunder 5-1 on Friday night in the Esso Cup semifinal.

The win sends the Ice Boltz to the national midget girls title game and sent the unbeaten Thunder home.

The Pacific reps from Edmonton won five straight games in the preliminary round, whereas the team from Ontario had two wins, one shootout win, one shootout loss and one loss in five days.

Edmonton opend the scoring at the 3:53 mark of the first period as Elizabeth Salyn opened the scoring for the Thunder.

The Ice Boltz responded 2 minutes later with a goal by Taylor Murphy.

Dion scored at 11:44 of the first period to take a lead they would never relinquish again.

Kaitlyn McManus and Julie Vaillancourt padded the lead with goals in the second period.

With a comfortable three-goal lead over Edmonton, North Bay started the third focusing on strengthening its defensive unit and keeping the puck out of their own end.

North Bay netminder Sabrina Picard stood strong between the posts, stopping every shot Edmonton could fire at her.

Cynthia St. Cyr scored the lone goal of the 3rd period to seal the victory and send the Ontario reps to the Gold Medal game.

While scoring 5 times was huge, Ice Boltz head coach Darren Turcotte credits his goaltender in this huge victory.

“Sabrina has been remarkable through our regional playdowns, through our provincial playdowns, and all this week," said Turcotte on www.hockeycanada.ca.

“This week she’s just in her zone,” he added. “And we’re looking for her to be in the zone for 60 more minutes tomorrow.”

North Bay will battle LHFDQ Nord (Quebec) for gold at Bill Copeland Sports Centre.

The gold medal game will be televised live on TSN2 at 9 pm ET on Saturday night.

Follow the games live on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/HC_EssoCup.