A valued member of the Saugeen Maitland Bantam AA girls this season, Avery Reeves has earned a chance to face the province’s top on-ice talent.
The Mount Forest athlete will play for one of eight teams at the 2012 Ontario Winter Games, slated to be held in Collingwood from March 6-11. Reeves, an Egremont Community School Grade 8 student, was selected as one of only 160 girls to play in the provincial showcase.
Five tryout camps were held across Ontario from August to October, with more than 600 girls attending the tryouts. Avery attended one of the Toronto camps, where she skated with girls from around the province.
The girls competing in the Winter Games are all born in 1993-94, and will be coached by an accomplished female hockey player. Cheryl Pounder, Angela James, Vicky Sunohara and Geraldine Heaney are just some of the legends that will be on hand to help the girls.
Each team will run two days of practice followed by an eight team tournament. Practices will begin March 4, with the tourney final set for March 7. The Winter Games are held every other year, and there is an Olympic-type feel to the event. More than 3,500 young athletes competing in 27 different sports will stay in an athlete’s village.
Avery’s Saugeen Maitland team is playing some good hockey these days, and boasts a 30-6-4 record heading into a weekend tournament in Ottawa. The girls started the new year in the win column, defeating the Cambridge Roadrunners 3-0 in league play and downing three Detroit teams in a cross-border exhibition series.
After a well-deserved break from the ice over Christmas, the Bolts were a little rusty during a rare Thursday night game versus the Roadrunners in Teeswater.  Call-up Mel Nolan got things started with a first period goal. Lexi Smith earned an assist on the goal and then potted one of her own. Tori Terpstra finished off the scoring with a shot.
Looking to get ready for the second half of their season, the Lightning arranged an exhibition series against the three top bantam girls teams in Detroit. In a period of less than 24 hours, the shorthanded Bolts gutted out tidy 4-2, 3-0 and 6-1 wins.
Reeves scored a pair of goals, along with four each from Ashlee Lawrence and Miranda Lantz, and singles from Jessica Dales and Nikki Zabel.
Strong goaltending and defence were the order this past weekend, as the Bolts earned a pair of shutouts in league play.  The Lightning visited Strathroy to battle the Bluewater Hawks, and Lexi Smith scored a power play goal in the second period and followed with one more in the third to pace the locals to a 2-0 shutout victory.
Back on the ice in Chatham for a match-up against the Outlaws, Cassidy Mason scored the only goal of the 1-0 game on a goal-mouth scramble midway through the first period.