Week 18 was for the girls and women as our MHR/LiveBarn Games of the Week highlighted four great matchups between top girls’ and women’s teams from both sides of the border.

For the third year we featured action from the Chicago Mission’s Pink in the Rink cancer fundraiser as the Mission girls hosted Windy City Storm 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U teams Saturday. The 12U matchup included a pair of top-10 Tier 1 teams, so we turned our attention to that contest as well as the 16U tilt, which had the USA’s Nos. 7 and 14 Tier 1 teams facing off. Saturday’s other two Pink in the Rink contests included 19U Tier 1 teams ranked among the nation’s top 17 and 14U squads ranked among the top 32.

Pink in the Rink has become an annual event that is intended to raise awareness about cancer and generate funds to be donated to the American Cancer Society. It is held at the Fifth Third Arena Chicago Blackhawks Community Rink. The day started with the 12U game, followed by the 19U, 14U and 16U contests, respectively.

There were fundraising activities such as raffles, an auction and a wine pull that were held throughout the day, with 100 percent of all money collected from those activities and admission fees being donated to the American Cancer Society. Donations also could be made online. After raising more than $71,000 a year ago, this year’s event topped the $82,000 mark!

Congratulations to both the Mission and Storm on creating such a great day for such a wonderful cause while also treating fans to some exciting, high-level hockey.

While the Pink in the Rink contests were slated for Saturday, we also highlighted a pair of great matchups on Friday – an afternoon Junior Women’s Hockey League (JWHL) border battle from Minnesota between top-five American and Canadian 19U and U22 teams as well as an evening tilt between top-22 Canadian U18 clubs from the Female World Sport School Challenge in Winnipeg.

The JWHL is a league comprised of top Canadian and American girls’ and women’s teams that includes a major junior division (19U USA and U22 Canadian clubs) as well as 16U and 14U divisions. Our featured JWHL game was between USA 19U No. 1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Canada U22 No. 3 Stanstead College and probably was the top matchup on paper from the league’s regular-season weekend slate of games that were played at the University of Minnesota’s Ridder Arena all weekend.

CLICK HERE for the JWHL standings and results. Each of the weekend’s games still can be seen on the league’s YouTube channel,

Our fourth Game of the Week was a matchup between a pair of Canada U18 girls’ teams as the No. 4 Calgary Fire faced the No. 22 Westman Wildcats Friday at the Female World Sport School Challenge. In its eighth year, the FWSSC is an annual tournament initiated by Hockey Canada and hosted by St. Mary’s Academy in Winnipeg that includes 16 top female hockey teams from around North America.

CLICK HERE for the tournament home page as well as links to the schedule, a list of competing teams and other important information. One of our featured teams, the Calgary Fire, posted a perfect 5-0 record at the tournament – including three straight shutouts to open the weekend – and captured the gold medal.

Week 18 MHR/LiveBarn Featured Games of the Week Recap

#1 USA 19U Shattuck-St. Mary’s (5), #3 Canada U22 Stanstead College (2)

Level: 19U/U22 JWHL Major Junior Division

Date: Friday, January 27

Time: 5:00 p.m. ET

Location: Ridder Arena – University of Minnesota

Event: JWHL Regular Season

Stream: JWHL YouTube Channel

Two of North America’s top women’s programs faced off at the JWHL weekend on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Shattuck played two games during the weekend, beating Stanstead in our featured matchup and also knocking off USA No. 10 North American Hockey Academy, 4-2. That left the Sabres with a 38-4-2 overall record. They have now outscored their opponents, 210-58. Stanstead went 1-3-0 in Minnesota, beating Canada’s No. 38 Pacific Steelers, 8-1, while falling to Canada No. 10 Balmoral Hall, 5-2, and Shattuck’s USA No. 16 second 19U team, 5-2. Stanstead is now 32-8-1 on the year and holds a 159-68 scoring advantage over its opponents. In this game, Stanstead got on the board early in the first period on the first of Karel Prefontaine’s two goals. Beatrice Perron-Roy and Maelie Pion assisted on the tally, which was answered about nine minutes later by Shattuck’s Sydney Putrah. Putrah took a feed from Jordyn Petrie, walked in from the blue line and buried a perfectly placed shot. Hannah Fetteroff and Lola Reid extended the Sabres’ lead to 3-1 in the second period, with Allie Lalonde assisting on both goals. Prefontaine narrowed the margin to one early in the final frame before Lulu Gray banked one in off the Stanstead defense from a bad angle and Petrie buried one of her own to close out the scoring and seal the win. Both teams held on to their rankings spot in the MHR Week 18 rankings.

#4 Calgary Fire (4), #22 Westman Wildcats (0)

Level: Canada Girls U18 Tier 1

Date: Friday, January 27

Time: 5:45 p.m. ET

Location: Hockey for All Centre – Winnipeg, Manitoba

Event: Female World Sport School Challenge

One of the top preliminary-round games from the FWSSC in Winnipeg featured this matchup of top-22 Canada Girls U18 teams. Calgary entered the weekend with a 26-6-0 record and having outscored its opponents, 108-49. The teams had met previously on Dec. 10, with the Fire also skating to a 4-0 victory. They also beat the Wildcats, 3-0, Sept. 16. Westman brought a 27-11-2 record into the tournament and had dropped its previous two games, 7-0, to No. 10 U22 Balmoral Hall and 2-0 to the then-No. 35 Winnipeg Avros. The Fire posted shutouts in their first three games of the tournament then skated off with the gold medal after beating the No. 13 Northern Alberta Xtreme, 6-3, in the semifinals and pulling out a 3-2 overtime win vs. No. 11 South Alberta Hockey Academy in the championship game. The impressive showing by Calgary allowed them to hold onto the No. 4 spot in the Canada Tier 1 U18 rankings with an overall record of 31-6-0. The Fire have now outscored their opponents, 128-54. Westman was 1-3-0 at the tournament and dropped to No. 27 in the rankings. The Wildcats lost to No. 18 Rink Hockey Academy Winnipeg, 4-1, and the No. 32 Avros, 2-1 after beating the No. 65 Northern Capitals, 4-0.

#8 Chicago Mission (3), #3 Windy City Storm (2)

Level: USA Girls 12U Tier 1

Date: Saturday, January 28

Time: 11:20 a.m. ET

Location: Fifth Third Chicago Blackhawks Community Rink – Chicago, Ill.  

Event: Pink in the Rink Cancer Fundraiser

Stream: LiveBarn 

Sometimes we just get lucky and the teams we pick to highlight in our Games of the Week feature provide us with an instant classic. That’s exactly what happened when these two elite programs collided in Chicago Saturday as it took all but the final 22 seconds of the game to determine the winner. It was at that point, with the clock winding toward all zeroes in the third period, that Elena Monaco took a cycle pass from Ainsley Washo in the corner and found Katherine Jessup right on the doorstep for the game-winning goal. That score came after the the Storm had rallied from two goals down on second-period goals by Madelyn Daquilante and what looked to be Samantha Bonarek to tie the game at 2 heading into the final period. Bonarek appeared to knock home the rebound of Natalie Malloy’s point shot to even the score. The Mission got on the board midway through the first period on Carter Harre’s penalty shot, and Monaco extended the margin to 2-0 with a goal 11 seconds into the second period. These teams actually played each other three times between Saturday and Monday, with Windy City winning the other two contests, 5-3 and 2-1. The Storm are now 46-14-3 on the season and remain ranked third. Chicago is 32-26-3 and remains in the No. 8 rankings slot.

#7 Chicago Mission (3), #14 Windy City Storm (1)

Level: USA Girls 16U Tier 1

Date: Saturday, January 28

Time: 4:10 p.m. ET

Location: Fifth Third Chicago Blackhawks Community Rink – Chicago, Ill.  

Event: Pink in the Rink Cancer Fundraiser

Stream: LiveBarn 

Gorbatenko is a familiar name the those who follow girls’ hockey in the United States closely, and that name was predominant once again in this game Saturday. Rachel Gorbatenko took Iris Cheng’s pass and walked in from the point to stake Chicago to a 1-0 lead less than a minute into this contest. Then, in the third period, her sister Nicole potted what turned out to be the game-winning goal after carrying the puck two-thirds of the ice surface, executing a pretty toe drag and firing a bullet into the net. Nicole’s goal broke a 1-1 tie and Amelia Laskowski iced the outcome with 2:20 remaining in the game to secure the 3-1 victory for the Mission. Older sister Kelly Gorbatenko recently played for the United States at the U18 Women’s World Championship. She is on the Mission’s sixth-ranked 19U team and is committed to play NCAA Division I hockey at the University or Wisconsin. Windy City had tied the game in the second period when Mia Kozak deflected home a one-timer from the point by Tatum Lund. Both teams held onto their rankings for Week 18. Chicago is now 34-8-3 on the year, while Windy City is 20-19-8.