Amy Reich scored twice, leading the Chesapeake Bay Lightning to the Women’s B Southeastern District championship with a 4-3 win over the Honeybadgers on Sunday.

That qualifies the Lightning for the Toyota-USA Hockey National Championships at the end of March in Green Bay, Wis.

Reich felt fortunate to come away with the victory.

“[The Honeybadgers] dominated the game,” said Reich, a right wing. “They outshot us, but we just capitalized on what we had and we made it work.”

Chesapeake Bay took a 4-1 lead before holding off a late rally by the Honeybadgers, who scored their final goal with five seconds left.

“They gave us a little bit of a scare, but we managed to do it,” Lightning coach David Abramson said. “They could have won the faceoff and pulled off a quick goal because they did it with about 40 seconds left. So it was a close one, but we held on.”

Abramson said his team took too many penalties, but they kept their poise for the most part.

“I think we’re pretty good at both ends,” Abramson said. “We have a couple players who can score a lot of goals, but our main strength is we’ll score one or two goals and then play the right defense to hold on to the win.”

Most of his players are in their mid-20s or early 30s. They live in the Maryland-Washington, D.C. area.

The Carolina Aces took third and the Southern Thunder finished fourth.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.