The Scotiabank provincial U12 Petite Snipers ringette team finished fourth during a busy four-day trip to the Ontario AA provincial championships in Nepean.
The girls finished round-robin play with three wins, over Forest 2-1, Kitchener 5-3, and Burlington 12-3; and three losses, to London 7-2, Cambridge 4-1, and Chatham 6-5.
Tied for fourth in standings with London and Chatham, St. Marys have to play each of them in  a “mini games”  to advance to the semi-finals. St. Marys had lost to London and Chatham in round-robin play.
In the first game against London, the girls knew they would have to overcome the physical size of the London players with speed, and they came out flying.
It was London, however, that netted the first goal a minute into the 10-minute “mini game.”
St. Marys regrouped, and Amanda Hodgert charged down to even the score on a relay pass from Shelby Heywood and Regan Mitchell.
Sydney Klumpers was stellar in net for St. Marys, denying London any more goals and helped the team seal its first victory.
Candace Powe netted the go-ahead goal with four minutes to play on a nice feed from Jessica Armstrong. With two and a half minutes to play, Natalie Reay and Powe set-up Mitchell who snapped a wrist shot to secure the win.
With London gone and only 10 minutes of rest, the Snipers took to the ice against Chatham.
Amanda Verbeke started the scoring on the power play a minute and a half in, with Rebecca Rooseboom and Armstrong assisting.
Chatham come back hungry, and after four saves from Klumpers, Chatham slammed one in to tie the score at 1-1.
After five minutes of fast end-to-end play,  Verbeke, with her teammates Powe and Hodgert assisting, netted what proved to be the winner – and the goal which took the  Petite Snipers into the final day.
The girls met Cambridge in their fourth early morning game, and could not handle the undefeated team, dropping four goals in the first period in the loss. Klumpers had a strong second half, making 23 saves.
In the bronze medal game, Whitby came out strong and netted two in the first and were up 3-0 before Reay and Mitchell lead a great pass to Hodgert who found the net.
Verbeke was successful on a nice pass from Powe and Rooseboom to get St. Marys within two goals with nine minutes to go.
But despite trying hard to get the equalizers, the Snipers were denied and finished  short of the bronze.
The Snipers will now finish their season in the Western Ontario playoffs with Chatham and London; games times to be announced.