Waterloo K-W Rangers Win Gold at Rochester Girls Fire on Ice Tournament

The new Waterloo K-W Rangers Women’s PWHL (Provincial Women’s Hockey League) Hockey Club competed this past weekend in Rochester, NY at the prestigious USA Fire On Ice Hockey Tournament and came home the Tournament Champions in the U19 AA division. 

In the Championship game on Sunday, the Waterloo K-W Rangers defeated the famous NAHA (North American Hockey Academy) White team in the Championship game 1-0.   Jessica Buttinger scored the goal off a nice pass from defenseman Jessica Hall who got the assist from goalie Katie Greenway.  Greenway also got credit for the shutout of the NAHA White team, which is one of the most successful USA hockey prep school programs based out of Stowe, Vermont.

In round robin play, the first game was played against the Princeton Tiger Lillies, prep school team based in Princeton, NJ.  The Waterloo K-W Rangers took an early 2-0 in the first period lead off of a first goal at 6:43 scored by Jessica Buttinger assisted by Erin Burns and Natalie Buttinger and a second goal at 2:06 scored by Natalie Buttinger assisted by Olivia Boersen and Katarina Zgraja.  In the second period, Jessica Buttinger scored again unassisted to give the Rangers the 3-0 lead.  Princeton was able to break Katie Greenway’s shutout on a goal with 4 seconds left in the game, but the Rangers won 3-1.

The second game of the round robin was against Northwood Prep School based out of the 1980 Olympic arenas in Lake Placid, NY.  Northwood has two girls who hope to play with the USA U18 team at the World Championships next year in Calgary, AB.  The Waterloo K-W Rangers were able to down Northwood 1-0 on a third period unassisted goal by Abygail Laking.  Sarah Moses got the shutout.  In the third game, despite controlling most of the play, the Waterloo K-W Rangers lost 2-0 to the National Sports Academy team from Calgary, AB.

In the quarter finals, the Rangers played an undefeated Toronto Aeros Midget AA team. The Waterloo K-W Rangers girls took a 3-0 lead on goals by Alex Jaworski assisted by Natalie Buttinger in the 2nd period; Lauren Coxon assisted by Jaworski and Kelsey Smith and Abygail Laking assisted by Natalie Buttinger.  Again, the Aeros broke Katie Greenway’s shutout with a goal scored in the last 3 seconds of the game.

In the semi-finals, the Waterloo K-W Rangers played the Whitby Wolves Midget AA team.  After the Wolves had taken the early 1-0 lead, the Rangers came back with a goal in the first period by Kathleen Bortuzzo assisted by Olivia Boersen and Lauren Coxon and another goal by Jessica Buttinger assisted by Erin Burns.  In the second period, Kelsey Smith scored in the last 8 seconds to give the Rangers the 3-1 lead.  In the third period, the Rangers pulled away with goals by Kathleen Bortuzzo assisted by Lynsey Schill and Kelsey Smith’s second goal of the game assisted by Jessica Buttinger and Jocelyn St. Clair. Whitby scored another goal late in the game but it was too late as the Waterloo K-W Rangers won 5-2 to secure their berth in the finals against the powerhouse NAHA squad.

Congratulations to the new Waterloo K-W Rangers PWHL team winning such a prestigious tournament in their first year of play.  Of note, the Waterloo K-W Rangers were missing two top players, Candice Styles who helped Ontario Red win the Canadian U18 Gold Medal and Jessica Sorenson who played with Ontario Blue that came fourth at the Canadian U18 Championships played in Napanee, ON this past weekend.