Dayton Fangs Women's Ice Hockey

The Fangs went into the playoffs in 5^th place with a record of 1-6-1 in league play. The Fangs meet the Pittsburg Puffins (4^th place) in Game 1 Saturday morning with 13 skaters and their back-up goaltender. They came out strong and it paid off when Tana Frangioni scored at 8:17 of the first period with an assist from Shannon Bailey. Frangioni also received the Fangs only penalty of the game for roughing at 1:20. In the second period the Puffins would dominate and score two goals. Gerri Kail tied the game at 12:43 of the third period with an assist from Frangioni and Julia Beebe. The Puffins then scored two unanswered goals. The Fangs were not able to convert on a Power Play with 3 mins left in the game and had lost their first game of the playoffs 4-2. Goaltender Crystal Pickett stopped 21 of the Puffins 25 shots.

Before the second game of the afternoon the Fangs were surprised with a gift from Julia Beebe’s cousin, Chris Beebe Owner of the Cincinnati Sign Company. He presented the Fangs with the team banner in the photo. It is currently hanging at The Kettering Ice Arena, the Fangs home rink. Thank you to Chris and his designer for getting this done so quickly, we LOVE it!!

Saturday afternoon the Fangs played the Cincinnati Rising Stars II (3^rd place). This time the Fangs would only be playing with 11 skaters. Merri Meadows and Jenny Siehl had to sit this game due to illness and a possible knee injury. The team wanted to win this game so that they could play again on Sunday. It definitely showed and Tana Frangioni would again score the first goal with an assist from Danielle Fairchild. With only 1:04 left in the first Liz Burton scored an unassisted goal. In the second period, Frangioni scored an unassisted goal, the only goal for the Fangs in the period. The Stars answered back less than a minute later with an unassisted goal of their own. However, the Fangs were unstoppable in the third, they started surprising themselves. Kim LaPole started it off with an unassisted goal. Then Burton got her second with an assist from Julia Beebe. Kim put another one up with an assist from Gerri Kail. Stephanie Beiser received an Interference penalty, but the Stars weren’t able to use it to their advantage. LaPole scored another goal after connecting with Burton with only 31 seconds left in the game. Crystal Pickett stopped 17 of the Stars 18 shots for her first win with the Fangs. The 7-1 win was the Fangs first ever playoff win.

Later that evening the majority of the team attended the Annual POWHA Playoff Party hosted by the Cincinnati Rising Stars teams. Audrey Choh (F) was named to the All Star Team for the Lower Division along with Marcia Metz (F) (Pittsburgh Puffins), Lisa Howard (C) and Rachel Loos (D) (Columbus Bandits), Christina Williams (D) (Cleveland Heights Ice Hawks), and Tiphanie Crane (G) (Cincinnati Rising Stars II).  They enjoyed the pizza and other goodies, and played speed euchre and joined in on the speed cornhole tournament. The party then continued at Hotel Pichler aka Karen Pichler’s house where 7 players and 1 coach would eventually get some sleep and prepare for the next game on Sunday. Thanks Pichler for opening up your house to us, it was a blast!!!

Sunday morning rolls around and everyone wakes up and gets ready for a game that they had no idea would turn out the way it did. The Fangs get to the rink, warm up, and get the sleep out of their eyes as they get ready to face the Pittsburgh Puffins again for 3^rd place. This time they had Merri Meadows and Jenny Siehl back, but would miss Danielle Fairchild do to illness. Tana Frangioni once again fires up the team when she scores the first goal of the game with an assist from Karen Pichler and Liz Burton only 1 min 12 sec into the game. They were awake now. Kim LaPole would receive a tripping penalty, but the Puffins couldn’t use it to their advantage. Then at 9:31 of the first Frangioni would score an unassisted goal of the weekend. This was beginning to feel like déjà vu. You couldn’t even tell that she had been off the ice for almost two months…she was on a roll and so was the rest of the team. LaPole received another tripping penalty at 7:59 of the first. This time though Audrey Choh and Jenny Siehl figured out a good way to kill off the penalty. Choh would pass the puck back to Siehl, Siehl would hold onto it until the Puffins came in the zone to take it from her and she would fire it down the length of the ice making them chase it…very effective. So much so that they would use the same method to kill of the majority of other three penalties of the game: Stephanie Beiser - checking (2^nd per), Jenny Siehl - checking (3^rd per), and Liz Burton – tripping (3^rd per).  In the second period Julie Goode would get her first goal of the season after taking a shot from the point. Okay, now this was looking different, 3-0 in the second…this doesn’t happen for the Fangs. They continued to play hard and kill of penalties and when the buzzer sounded at the end of the game everyone celebrated because they had just  won 3-0 and taken 3^rd place. Crystal Pickett stopped the Puffins 16 shots for a shut-out. This meant more to her than anything else, as this was her retirement game.

Now some people would say so what it’s 3^rd not 1^st, but for the Fangs that is a huge accomplishment. The whole weekend was an experience that they will never forget. The Fangs have now won two games in a row, defeated the opponent with more than just a one goal lead, and have shown themselves that when they pull it together they can do anything!

To our coaches thank you for being there for us. You put up with so much and don’t even get paid for it. We really appreciate you being there on or off the bench. Robin thanks for taking care of us and making sure that we were hydrated and all accounted for.

To those that couldn’t make it this weekend…you were missed very much!!! Hope you enjoyed your time in Alabama, California, or wherever else you may have been…these wins were for you too!!!