The Sanderson Sports Orangeville Tigers Atom B Girls hockey team was eliminated from the Provincial Hockey Tournament this past weekend after a head-to-head, two-game series with the North Halton Twisters.

The first game in Georgetown was a high spirited affair with both sides making crisp passes and skating hard.

From early in the game, the Tigers outshot the Twisters but just couldn't get any bounces including two goals which were called back by the referee.

Finally, in the third period, Lindsay Smith scored unassisted on a breakaway where she eluded the Twisters goalie with a nice backhand move to the stick side.

However, in the end, the Twisters prevailed over Orangeville by an unrepresentative 4-1 score, in a game the Tigers could have won.

Tigers coach Rob Traves was very pleased with his team effort but disappointed with the outcome, 'The poor officiating didn't help us. Neither referee was in the right position to call either of those goals'.

With the final game in Orangeville, the Tigers found themselves in a must win situation and from the drop of the puck, they came ready to play.

Orangeville opened the scoring at 7:12 when Smith fed the puck back to the blueline and Claire Renouf blasted a shot past the Halton goalie.

The Tigers went up 2-0 in the second period on a beautiful solo effort by Smith as she took a pass from Renouf near centre ice and eluded at least three Twister players including the goalie for the 2-0 lead.

But with 1:11 left to play in the second, North Halton notched their first when a shot from the high slot deflected off an Orangeville defender, leaving Tigers goaltender Brittany Shand helpless.

Then early in the third another shot through a crowd found its way into the back of the Tiger net and 20 seconds later the Twisters took the lead on a breakaway conversion.

Now down 3-2 the Tigers could have mailed it in but they kept up relentless pressure on the stellar Halton goalie.

Continuing to out shoot and out chance the Twisters, Smith finally netted her third of the game on another breakaway courtesy of another long pass by Renouf.

Orangeville continued to press and outwork the Twisters right until the final buzzer but the 3-3 tie put North Halton through to the next round and eliminated the Tigers from further Provincials play.

"Our girls played great!" beamed coach Traves who was proud of their two-game effort, "and we still have lots of hockey left to play!"

The Tigers will be playing in the Brampton women's hockey tournament later in March and continue their league championship quest this Friday evening at Alder against the Brampton Canadettes.