By Doug Kennedy

I went to Rochester on Saturday, to watch division-one girls hockey game between Syracuse and RIT. Madison Beishuizen from Ripley plays for the Syracuse Orange ladies team. The atmosphere at those games is something you have to witness. The school band is always playing in one end of the arena. There were probably about 300 people in a really nice 3000 seat arena. Syracuse is not off to a great start with a 2-10 record, but they have played six games against three of the top-ranked teams in the U.S. The six games were all within a few goals. Syracuse won on Saturday, 3-0. They played RIT at home on Friday night. They outshoot RIT 45-22, but lost 7-4. It is only a 90-minute bus ride between these two teams. Beishuizen has always been a top-scorer on most of the teams she has played on. She has four assists in the 12 games the team has played. If you would have seen how good she played on Saturday you would know she is going to be a top scorer for the Syracuse team. It is not often that you see a freshman play a regular shift, be on the first power-play and kill penalties. Her coaches obviously see the talent she has. She had a few chances and made some great passes that were not converted. That will balance out over the season. If you get a chance to go to a game, they play every Friday and Saturday. Syracuse is only a six-hour drive from Kincardine.

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The Kincardine Bulldogs are moving up in the standings after winning two home games on the weekend. On Saturday night, they defeated the first place Mount Forest Patriots, 6-3. Jamie Brock had a really good game in net, stopping 40 shots. After the first period ended in a 1-1 tie, the Bulldogs jumped ahead with two goals in the second period. Jordan Caskenette and Logan Freiburger led the way with two goals each. Singles went to Brett Burrows and Mike Feigehen. Assists went to Joseph Pringle, Logan Swanton, Freiburger, Caskenette and Bryce McFadden.
On Sunday afternoon, they defeated the Mitchell Hawks, 6-1. Caskenette scored two goals, with singles going to Liam Colhoun, Trevor Donaldson, Freiburger and Tyler Sutter. Assists went to Donaldson, Caskenette, McFadden, Freiburger, Swanton and Feigehen. Sean Andrus made 23 saves to pick up the win.
The Bulldogs added Jake Fair to the roster on the weekend. Fair has played the last two years for the Bulldogs and will be a solid player on the blue line.
The Ripley Wolves defeated the Tillsonburg Thunder on the road on Saturday night, 5-2. Cody Britton led the way with four goals. Garrett Meurs scored the other goal. Brett Catto had two assists and single assists went to Dan Niclof, Ryan Dudgeon, Kevin Boyd, Tyler McCarthy, Jordan Turcotte and Nick Seiler. Jason Hamilton got the win in net for the Wolves. They play at home this Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the Elora Rock and travel to Minto on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Ryley Cribben of the Mount Forest Patriots is the Pollock Division MVP for October. The rookie of the month is Ryan Goetz from the Hanover Barons.