MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 1 – In a bout where two teams seem to be mirroring each other, matching hit-for-hit, penalty-for-penalty, score-for-score, back and forth, one jam can make all the difference. For the Kilmore Girls Saturday night, jammer Rhea Lentless created the spark to electrify her team in the final minutes to seal a 90-80 victory over the Violent Femmes.

Rhea Lentless, who sat in the first half due to lagging behind practice requirements, revitalized her team with 24 second-half points as the Kilmores rallied from a 30-35 first half deficit.

"It's only fair to let other girls that have more practices play," Rhea Lentless said, agreeing with her team's decision to leave her on the bench for the first half. But even the Femmes acknowledged that they had no answer for her in the second half. "We fell apart, it was a [mess]… we were able to stop [ Tin] Lizzy, LexCalibur, Freddie [Kruelgirl], all of them, but we couldn't stop Rhea," Violent Femmes co-captain Kili St Cyr said.

The two teams skated to a tie in the early seven minutes of the first half, but a critical two minutes in penalty on the Kilmore Girls' pivot allowed the Femmes to take a 5 point edge, and they later re-took that lead into halftime when Femmes jammer Block-n-Deck-Her led a 5-0 jam.

Femmes' co-captain Crust Almighty (left) and captain Cher Noble (pivoting) make sandwich meat out of Kilmore jammer Rhea Lentless during the second-half comeback (also pictured, left to right: Reefer-E, Dee Dee Generate and Anita Tension.) Photo: Fotodog

Penalties mounted for both teams in the beginning of the second half, with both teams having skaters in the penalty box and making lineup substitutions because of foul trouble. "Our blockers and pivots had penalties and we had to adjust to that so we didn't have two girls in the box," Kilmore captain Betty LaRude said.

The teams continued to trade blows, with the Kilmores slowly working up to a lead throughout the second half despite grabbing lead jammer only half of the time. But they broke out with 2:15 left in the game while clinging to a 1 point lead when Rhea Lentless led a 13-5 jam that lasted the full two minutes with neither jammer taking lead.

Tin Lizzy led the winners with 46 points over 10 jams throughout the game, and with Rhea Lentless 's 24 the two scored the majority of the team's points, combining for a 23 point advantage over the Femme jammers matched against them.

The Violent Femmes had a much more balanced attack, with Block-n-Deck-Her scoring 22 points, Eda Mouthful 21, and Kat Scratch Eva 19.

Betty LaRude summed up the Kilmore strategy as "focusing on their jammers - our total focus was knocking them out of bounds… we were not helping out our jammers at all."

Despite a very physical game that featured a high number of penalties and, according to reports from players on both teams, a lot of combative banter on the track, both teams said it was a well-played game. "It was awesome, and I want to go again," Kili St Cyr said. "The Violent Femmes played hard, they played tough, and they brought a really good game," Betty LaRude agreed.

The victory moves last year's intraleague runners-up to 2-0, setting them for January 12th faceoff against the 1-1 Banger Sisters. The Violent Femmes will look to keep the Delta Delta Di winless in their next bout.

Game Notes:

• Kili St Cyr was ejected from the game in the sixth jam of the second half while the Femmes still had a 2 point lead. "I got three major penalties, but it's questionable what they were for… the refs are theoretically doing their best… sometimes we don't see what they see."

• After not playing the first bout or the first half of today's game, Rhea Lentless was very happy about the crowd reaction to her return. "The crowd remembered me! Spank you very much!"

• After two bouts, Tin Lizzy is second in the league with 101 points, trailing Delta Delta Di's Medusa, who has 116.