The Sanderson Sports Orangeville Tigers Atom B girls' hockey team was crowned division champions at the 30th Annual Orangeville Tigers Tournament this past weekend.

The girls overcame a couple of hot goalies and a previously unbeaten division rival to take the tournament title.

Orangeville opened the weekend against the South Huron Sabres on Friday night.

The Tigers held the edge in play for most of the game and went ahead on Lindsey Smith's goal in the first period with assists going to wingers Erica Greshuk and Jayde Lavoie.

The Sabres drew even partway through the third and although the Tigers continued relentless pressure, the Sabres goalie was remarkable in turning away all shots to keep the final score at 1-1.

Their second game was against division tournament favourite, the Clearview Ice- Cats.

Continuing their seasonlong struggle against Clearview, the Tigers found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-0 score at the end of the first period.

But the Tigers never gave up, playing tougher in their own end and held the Clearview powerhouse to only one more goal.

With less than three minutes left, the Tigers captain Smith finally broke the Clearview shut-out taking a pass from Julia Mutton then with rush down the right side after to finish the 4-1 loss.

Game three of the roundrobin was now a must win against division rival Aurora Panthers.

The Tigers controlled the Panther zone for much of the game but the Aurora goalie was spectacular.

Finally, near the end of the first, Kirsten Traves fed Courtney Lewis in the slot who ripped a shot to the top corner.

An Aurora breakaway tied the game at 1-1 to start the second but the Tigers re-took the lead on a shorthanded breakaway goal by Smith from Maggie Scaife's clearing pass.

More Tiger's penalty trouble led to Aurora's third period power-play equalizer.

With two minutes left in the game and needing a win, the Tigers pulled their goalie and Smith converted another breakaway and an elated Tigers bench erupted.

In the dying moments, Kayley Mutton cleared the puck into the Aurora zone and the speedy Alyssa Kozluk outraced the Aurora defenders to notch the empty net insurance marker to seal the 4-2 win and advance the team to the championship.

The final game pitted the

Tigers in a rematch with Clearview, against whom the Tigers were 0-5 on the season.

However this was a different Tigers club, energized, focused and determined to win their tournament on home ice.

The Tigers generated more chances in the first period than the entire previous game and mid-way through the first a faceoff win by Smith was blasted into back of the net by Claire Renouf for the critical first goal.

The talented Clearview club started to control the play in the second period but an inspired Tigers defense and the solid goaltending of Brittany Shand held fast.

Then early in the third, a break-out started by Taylor Murray to Samantha Sterritt found a streaking Smith who danced around the Clearview defenders and buried an insurance marker.

To a player, the entire Tigers team choked off the Clearview attack and player of the game goaltender Shand was outstanding demonstrating smart puck handling and great puck awareness to seal the 2-0 victory for the Tigers.

SWEETHEART TOURNAMENT. The Orangeville Tigers played host this past weekend to teams from across Ontario who converged on both the Alder Street and Tony Rose arenas to take part in the 2008 Orangeville Girls Hockey Association Tigers Sweetheart Tournament. While the Bantam B and Midget C squads each made respectable showings to earn silver, it was the Atom B and Atom C girls that stole the show, each posting 2-0 wins to take their division titles. Photos/MIKE MALONEY The tournament win in front of the home crowd was exhilarating for the girls and the victory over a previously unbeatable Clearview provided a huge mental lift for the team. Coach Rob Traves echoed, "To be tournament champions at home is very special. The fact that our girls upset the favoured Clearview has brought their confidence up to new level".

The Atom B Tigers resume their regular season schedule next weekend.