After back-to-back wins on the road in Burlington last week, the Mississauga Chiefs returned home to Iceland Arena today, only to drop a 3-2 decision to the Vaughan Flames in Canadian Women’s Hockey League action.
Chiefs head coach Bradi Cochrane said it was a tough loss for her team.
“They (Vaughan) came out and took advantage of our mistakes and put the puck in the net when they needed to,” said Cochrane. “We took a lot of shots and we had a lot of rebounds that we didn’t put in.”
The second highest scoring team this season, Mississauga came out flat right from the get-go.
“I felt all around that we didn’t have the consistency that we needed both offensively and defensively,” said Cochrane. “Our passes weren’t on, our forechecks weren’t there, and the game just wasn’t consistent at all.”
Down 2-1 heading into the third, Vaughan defenceman and Mississauga native Michelle Bonello netted her second goal of the game and what would be the game-winning goal with 12 minutes to play.
Mississauga’s Rebecca Davies cut the lead back down to one with three minutes left on the clock but unfortunately that was as close as the Chiefs came, dropping their second decision in the past four.
“It was definitely not one of our best games,” said Chiefs rookie Shannon Moulson. “This team (Vaughan) does not give up easily, we had to put the puck in the net a bit more but it didn’t happen.”
Moulson, who resides in Mississauga, netted the Chiefs’ first goal.
“When we’re (Chiefs) down by one late in the game, we’re pretty confident that we’ll comeback because we’ve done it about two-three times already,” said Moulson. “We’re a team that doesn’t like to lose, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.”
With the loss, Mississauga drops to 11-3-1 on the season, still hanging on to a one-point lead over the Montreal Stars for the top spot.
Of the four losses, both Vaughan and Montreal have two wins each against Mississauga under their belts.
Next up, Mississauga looks for revenge as the team heads to Vaughan next Saturday before returning home for the second part of back-to-back games against the Flames.

December 4th, 2009
Jenner Released from the National Team
excerpt from The Oakville Beaver
Unfortunately for Brianne Jenner, she’ll have to wait at least four more years to realize her Olympic dreams.
The 18-year-old forward was one of two players cut from the Canadian Olympic women’s hockey team’s centralized roster Wednesday in Calgary.
Jenner, an Appleby College grad, was the youngest player at the team’s centralized camp. She delayed her acceptance to Cornell University by a year in order to try out for the team.
Defenceman Jocelyne Larocque of Manitoba was also released Wednesday.
“We thank Brianne and Jocelyne for their hard work and dedication to the national women’s program,” said Team Canada head coach Melody Davidson. “It has been an absolute pleasure working with these players.”
Three more cuts will be made before the end of December, when Team Canada will finalize its 21-player roster for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Brianne was a National Champion with the Mississauga Chiefs in 2007-2008 and competed with the Chiefs last season, however, has chosen to sign for the remainder of this season with the rival Burlington Barracudas before starting college career next season at Cornell University.

Mississauga started the scoring off with a goal mid way through the second period by Lindsay Brown, a rookie from St Francis Xavier University, who fought off a defender to gather up a rebound off a point shot by Shannon Moulson. Angela DiStasi extended the Chiefs lead after a mis-play by the Barracudas goaltender, Erika Vanderveer. The goaltender attempted to play the puck behind the net, but instead played the puck right to an unseen DiStasi who still had to magically put the puck upstairs on her backhand past a sprawling Vanderveer to put the Chiefs ahead 2-0. Burlington battled back scoring a goal past Chiefs goaltender, Sami Jo Small off a redirected point shot. The tides shifted and Burlington carried the play. Mississauga attempted to regroup, however, Burlington scored another goal off another redirected point shot by Barracudas defender Mal Johnston. However, this goal, luckily for the Chiefs, was called back due to a Burlington player in Chief’s goaltender Sami Jo Small’s crease.

Burlington pushed the entire third period for a second goal, but was stymied by Mississauga’s defense. Even as the seconds ticked away, the Barracudas continued to pressure, however, to no avail as the Chiefs earned their fourth win of the season versus the Barracudas and their third win by a single goal.

November 22, 2009
Chiefs Win in Shootout
Mississauga News - Chris Clay
For the third consecutive game for the Mississauga Chiefs of the Canadian Women's Hockey League, it took overtime and a shootout to determine a winner.
The Chiefs, playing on the road this afternoon against the Burlington Barracudas, emerged victorious with a 3-2 shootout win at Appleby Arena. The victory kept the Chiefs atop the CWHL standings and extended the team's lead over the Montreal Stars to three points.
Forward Kristy Zamora opened the scoring for the Chiefs after converting a pass from defenceman Shannon Moulson on a two-on-one. The pass was slightly ahead of Zamora, who dove to tip the shot past the Burlington goalie.
With the team down 2-1, Heather Logan scored on a point shot from Moulson to tie the game 2-2.
Overtime solved nothing and the two teams headed into a shootout. Zamora, Sommer West and Ashley Stephenson all scored in the shootout to give the Chiefs the win.
"We seem to like shootouts," said goalie Sami Jo Small, who made 27 saves in the victory. "We're really happy to get the win, considering we were down at one point. Sommer's hard work and effort all game helped rally us and allowed us to regain our focus. We needed this win to stay on top of the standings."
The Chiefs will travel to Burlington next Sunday for a rematch with the Barracudas at Appleby Arena. Game time is 12:30 p.m.
cclay@mississauga.net 

November 15th, 2009
 Shootout Excitement and Defeat
This past weekend had the Mississauga Chiefs do battle against two of the top teams in the Canadian Women's Hockey League. Despite numerous regulars out of the lineup, the CWHL Chiefs still managed to pick up three of the possible four points with a an exciting shootout overtime3-2 win on Saturday evening versus the Burlington Barracudas and a disappointing shootout loss on home ice on Sunday versus the Montreal Stars. 
Saturdays game was won with the help of call-ups Jenny Brine, a recent graduate of Harvard University, Kim Houde, a local AA player from the University of Manitoba and young 16 year forward Anissa Gamble of the Midget AA Hornets from New Brunswick. Brine was thrown quickly into action serving as one of two centremen along side veteran Sommer West. Despite the short staff, the Chiefs managed to outplay the Barracudas for the majority of the game, however, Burlington's goaltender Allie Cubberly stole the show, keeping the game close and allowing her team to capitalize on their chances. The Barracudas first shot was a goal on a breakaway nine minutes into the first period. It took until mid way through the second period on a power play for the Chiefs to finally solve Cubberly on a rebound off a shot by Jenny Brine that ricocheted off the cross bar right to an open Jenn Clarke who sailed it into the open net.  Minutes later, defenseman Shannon Moulson scored on a rush shooting the puck over the shoulder of the screened Barracudas goaltender. Burlington managed to draw even during the second period and the score was tied 2-2 going into the third. The Chiefs had their chances in the third, but once again Allie Cubberly stood her ground pouncing on every rebound. Overtime solved nothing and a shootout was required. Defenceman Shannon Moulson once again found the back of the twine as did forward Rebecca Davies. With Chiefs goaltender Shelly Payne standing tall for the Chiefs stopping all but one Burlington shooter, Mississauga clinched their first overtime victory of the season. 
 
In Sundays tilt versus the defending Clarkson Cup champions, the Montreal Stars, the Chiefs came out on a high from the previous night's OT victory and jumped ahead quickly on a goal by Kristy Zamora with assists to Amber Bowman and Heather Logan.   The second period saw a ton of shots on both sides of the ice and despite the Chiefs serving a total of eight minutes in penalties, Shannon Moulson still managed to find the back of the net to give the Chiefs a 2-0 lead. The lead didn't last long as Montreal answered back by quickly scoring 2 goals of their own by Stars Lisa-Marie Breton and Noemie Marin respectively. The game remained tied until Heather Logan of the Mississauga Chiefs scored with a mere 11 seconds left in the period to go in the dressing room with a lead, 3-2.
Montreal pressured the Chiefs right out of the gate and managed to score just 29 seconds into the period when the Stars Sabrina Harbec found an opening past a screened Chiefs goaltender, Sami Jo Small. The teams traded great opportunities; however, both goaltenders held their ground. With just over two minutes to play in the game Mississauga's Rebecca Davies was called for roughing leaving the Chiefs fighting for their life against one of the top power plays in the country. With only 1:19 left in the third, Montreal's Lisa Marie Breton parked herself in front of a sprawled Small and she managed to bang home a rebound off a point shot by Annie Guay to claim the lead for the first time in the game.  Not giving up hope, the Chiefs coach Bradi Cochrane pulled her goaltender and called a timeout as her team now found themselves on the power play with less than 30 seconds to play. The Chiefs kept their focus and worked well under pressure, throwing everything desperately towards the net. With just 6 seconds left in the game, Jenn Clarke slid a rebound past goaltender Jenny Lavigne sending the home crowd into a frenzy and sending the game into overtime.
Once again, for the second time in the weekend, a five minute penalty solved nothing, however, unlike the previous night; Mississauga couldn't solve the Stars goaltender Jenny Lavigne and the Chiefs had to settle for just one point in the overtime loss.