Cleveland Women's Classic: Tournament Recap

This past weekend, Team CLE hosted the Cleveland Women's Classic at the Mentor Civic Center. It was a very fun tournament of competitive hockey and a great turnout. Thank you to all of the teams who made the trek to Ohio to participate!

Team Navy went 3-0 during the round robin portion of the tournament, soundly beating the Buffalo Regals 7-0 on Friday night and the Chesapeake Bay Lightning 5-1 on Saturday morning. Saturday night's game against the Southern Thunder proved to be a much closer game with Team CLE fighting for a 2-1 win. The three wins secured Team Navy's presence in the championship game against the Rochester Edge on Sunday.

Rochester showed up to the championship game with only 9 skaters (rumor has it, a top player went home early with food poisoning and/or because she wanted to catch the Giants game). Team CLE hoped to take advantage of the Edge's short bench but ultimately came up short. Rochester scored three quick goals and, despite fighting back to tie the game 3-3 (and some high-quality chances after pulling the goalie with under a minute left in the game), Team CLE fell short and lost 4-3. It was an exciting, fast game, and hopefully the two teams will see each other again later in the season for a rematch.

Team CLE Navy's newest addition, Vanessa Gagnon, led the team with 6 goals and 3 assists on the weekend, averaging more than 2 points per game. Hey, welcome to the team, Vanessa! :)

Vanessa Gagnon wins the face off against Southern Thunder.

Lindsay Glavan goes in 1-1 against the Southern Thunder goaltender.

Power forward Diana Bell takes the body against a Southern Thunder defenseman.

Meanwhile, better news for Team White! After defeating Southern Thunder C and the Buffalo Ice Breakers early in the tournament, the women of Team CLE fell short against the Mizconducts on Saturday night in a 1-0 loss topped off by a late-in-the-game ejection of top forward Amy Loftus after a colorful scuffle with a Mizconducts player.

Despite the late loss, Team White made it to the championship game on Sunday and faced the Mizconducts once more - and this time, Team White came out on top with a 4-3 win. Katie Palinski led Team White with 4 goals and 2 assists on the weekend.

Defenseman Allie Sharon carries the puck up ice.

Team CLE White: Champions!

Team CLE Navy plays next in Detroit on November 22nd and 23rd against the O'Leary Hawks, Mission and Detroit Revolution. Team CLE White travels to Pittsburgh the same weekend to faceoff against Central Pitt and the Chesapeake Bay Lightning.