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Girls Tier I 14U Championship Set: Little Caesars (MI) vs. Minnesota Walleye (MN)

By USA Hockey , 04/02/23, 8:30PM MDT

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MATCHUP SET TO TAKE PLACE AT 10:30 AM ET MONDAY; WATCH LIVE ON USAHOCKEYTV.COM

DALLAS -- The Minnesota Walleye will battle Little Caesars for the Girls Tier I 14U Chipotle-USA Hockey Championship on Monday, April 3. The Walleye come into the championship with a 5-0-0 record, outscoring their competition 17-7. Little Caesars comes into the matchup with a 4-1-0 record, and first place in the USA division. The championship matchup will take place at 10:30 am ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com. To view the Girls Tier I 14U homepage, click here

Semifinal Recap: Minnesota Walleye (MN) 3, East Coast Wizards (MA) 2 (OT)

The Minnesota Walleye held strong to defeat the East Coast Wizards in overtime, 3-2.

The opening period of the contest saw skilled goaltending on both sides, with both teams registering a combined 13 shots.  A great scoring chance came for Walleye's Ali Butler with 2:58 remaining in the first period, as she barreled toward the net on a wide-open breakaway chance, but the goalie flashed a glove save. 

Coming into the second period, the East Coast Wizards quickly opened the scoring at 15:11 in the second period on the power play when Mia Daley skated the puck all the way from the neutral zone and sent a shot low on the left side of the netminder.

Twelve seconds later, Brynn Heising responded with a goal of her own tying the contest right off the center face-off, winning the possession and driving hard to the net.

A hooking penalty saw the Wizards on the power play at 13:04 in the second. Converting on the power play, the Wizards’ Mia Daley got her second power-play goal of the day when she jumped on a thwarted Brooke Bartlett shot at 12:28 in the middle frame.  

Minnesota continued the back and forth scoring when two minutes later, the Walleyes responded to make it 2-2 with an unassisted goal from Kathryn Zakrajseck after a scramble in front of the net. 

With 9:39 remaining in overtime, Zakrajseck sends the puck up ice to Talia Hansen who deked through the defenders and buried the puck from the top of the crease, sending the Walleyes to the Girls Tier I 14U National Championship game. 

Semifinal Recap: Little Caesars (MI) 3, Pittsburgh Penguins Elite (PA) 1

Little Caesars tallied three unanswered goals in the second period to advance to Championship Monday over the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite with a 3-1 win.

Outshooting Little Caesars 10-2 in the first, the Elite were rewarded when they opened the scoring at 6:58 into the first on the penalty kill with Madyson Monaco notching an unassisted shorthanded goal, after capitalizing off a turnover in the defensive zone. 

The middle frame saw Little Caesars respond quickly when Kathryn Spyhalski followed teammate Mylee Cook’s deflected shot from the point to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite netminder. 

Little Caesars added onto the score with 6:18 remaining in the second, when Kate Malachino scored the game-winning goal for Little Caesars when she fired a shot through traffic from just past the blue line to make it 2-1. 

Battling for the puck in the defensive zone in the second period, Emme Evens helped Little Caesars punch their ticket to Championship Monday when she sent the puck to Addison Folger who made the score 3-1 with 2:41 remaining in the period.

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