Two YHH top ranked U10A teams played in the Sugar & Spice championship game Sunday at Hastings.  YHH ranked #22 Orono beat #19 ranked Eastview 3-2 in a double overtime, sudden death shootout, win.  It was a game that had the crowd of 500 fans attention as the two teams played.  Each team thought they had won the game more than once.  

The Hasting’s Sugar & Spice tourney has become a fixture for U10 and U12 teams over the past 10 years.  The Hastings Association has a policy that if your association’s team wins one of the four tourneys held (U10A, U10B, U12A, and U12B), you are invited back next year at a reduced rate.

This year’s U10A tourney had three unbeaten (in league play) D8 teams entered (Rochester, Eagan, and Eastview), one unbeaten (in league play) D10 team (Rogers), one D6 team (Burnsville), and two D2 teams (Highland and the Northeast Metro Stars).  Highland has won one D2 game beating Roseville and lost three D2 games.  The Metro Stars have won two D2 games beating Roseville and Highland.

 Eastview beat Burnsville and Northeast Metro Stars to get to the championship game.  Orono beat Eagan and Rogers to get to the championship game.

The Second Period

The Spartans good play continued in the second period.  Orono scored twice in the first four minutes of the second period.  The first goal came when Gabby Norris and Lyla Ryskamp skated together across the Eastview blue line with an Eastview defender between them.  This became a 2-on-1 rush with Gabby carrying the puck and Lyla skating in a line with her.  That caused the goalie to worry about a shot from Gabby or a pass to Lyla for a shot.

Gabby took advantage of Lyla skating with her and skated to the opposite side of Lyla towards the goalie’s left.  That caused the goalie to keep in the middle of the goal.  Gabby took a hard shot that beat the goalie on her left side for the score.  Orono led 1-0.

Three minutes after Gabby had scored; Orono’s Bailey Abraham picked up a loose puck in the right side face off circle and fired a hard high shot on the Eastview net.  The speed of the puck shot by Bailey surprised the goalie and everyone in the stands.  It was an accurate shot.  After flying past the goalie; the puck hit in the upper right corner of the net for Orono's second goal. 

The Spartans led 2-0.  Bailey’s goal was scored with Orono minus one player on a penalty and was a shorthanded goal.

With five minutes to go in the second period, Orono drew two penalties thirty seconds apart.  Eastview had a good chance to score since they were skating 5 players and Orono was skating 3 players for the next 90 seconds.  The Lightning moved the puck to the front of the Orono net and tried to score but could not get the puck past Orono’s goalie.  The second period ended with Orono leading 2-0.

The Third Period

Eastview started to play better in the third period.  The Lightning players knew that they needed to score to win the game.  They worked hard to keep the puck in Orono’s zone and to get it in front of Orono’s net.  They did score after two minutes of the third period.  Eastview’s Mikalya Kelley picked up a loose puck in the right face off circle and beat Orono’s goalie with a low shot.  Mikalya’s goal cut Orono’s lead to 2-1.

A minute later, Eastview’s Lauren Crowl skated the puck across Orono’s blue into the left face off circle and fired a shot from behind an Orono defender.  The high shot dipped as it flew to the net and beat Orono’s goalie’s attempted save.  She tried to make a glove save.  Crowl’s goal tied the game 2-2.  The game ended in a tie.  That meant the two teams would play an overtime period with the first team to score winning the game and the Sugar & Spice Championship.

Overtime

The two teams played two overtime periods.  No team scored in the first period.  No team scored in the second period.  That forced a 5 player shootout.  The fifth Orono skater needed to score to keep the game tied.  If she failed, Orono would loose.  Her shot hit the shoulder of Eastview’s goalie and for a moment, everybody thought the puck was stopped and that it fell to the ice outside the goal.  Instead of falling to the ice, the puck climbed over the goalie and fell into the net to keep the game tied.  It forced a sudden death shootout meaning the first player to score (and if the other team’s shooter didn’t score) that team would win.  Eastview’s first shooter did not score.  Orono’s first shooter scored.  Orono won.

It was a good game played in front of a good crowd of hockey fans.  Both teams skated a good game.  Orono are champions of the Sugar & Spice this year.  The Spartans will be asked to return next year and if they do they will get a discount of the entry fee.  Then the girls will have a good excuse to hit the local Dairy Queen just down the block from the ice arena.  They just saved Mom and Dad some money.