Over the February 18 -20, 2022 weekend, the U15BB Greyhound Girls won the 25th Annual Brampton Cougars Friendship Festival. The girls started the tournament off with a pair of 1-1 ties on Friday against the Wilmot Wolverines and the Guelph Gryphons. Riley Pietramale started the scoring for the Hounds in game 1 with a nice feed from Kennah Shaw while Skylar Ruschpler scored our lone goal in game 2. Both Hounds goaltenders Pippa Holmes and Cassidy Cooke turned out solid performances in day one. Defensively, the Hounds also had a great start with consistently strong performances from Alana Johnstone, Zara Zavoral, Lily Rumiel, Kallie Cooke and Riley Peitramale.

Saturday morning the girls were handed their only loss of the weekend, 4-1 by the Kanata Rangers. Kendal Kleist had the lone goal for the Hounds. In the quarter finals on Saturday night the girls found their legs and beat the Ayr Rockets 5-2. Skylar Ruschpler notched a hattrick and Alexe Villebrun and Bryce Gagnon added singles with assists from Lundyn Beaulieu and Avery Zack. Call up goaltender Cassidy Cooke was outstanding in net to help the Hounds move on to the semis.

In Sunday’s semi finals, the Hounds met the Guelph Gryphons again. The Hounds fell behind early 2-0 and had to claw their way back. Late in the second period the Hounds found the back of the net on beautiful pass from Amy Clement to Ruschpler and then tied the game mid way through the third. 90 seconds into the sudden death overtime, Sky Ruschpler completed the natural hattrick and sent Guelph home to earn a spot in the 3pm Sunday final. Coach Carl Rumiel said “girls showed some mental toughness in finding a way to get back into the game and finish off a very good Guelph team.” The finals would also see a rematch with the Wilmot Wolverines. Again, the Hounds fell behind early in the game 1-0 until Ruschpler tied the game followed by a clutch goal in the third period by Kallie Cooke which ended up being the winner. Pippa Holmes made the save of the tournament late in the third on a Wilmot breakaway to preserve the one goal lead then Kendall Kleist added an insurance goal into the open net moments later.

The coaching staff are extremely proud of this team who showed significant growth and development in staying focused and maintaining intensity through a tough six game in three day schedule.

Source: Carl Rumiel