The St. Albert Mission were looking ahead to nationals when the host team for the belle U19AA provincials competed in last week’s ringette tournament in Ottawa.
The Mission tested their skills against four Quebec teams and the No. 2-ranked belles in Ontario and finished 4-1 as the tournament semifinalists.
“The No. 1 reason we went to Eastern Canada was after nationals last year we were surprised a little bit by the style of ringette the eastern teams were playing. It was quite a bit different than what we play in Western Canada and we wanted to have more experience playing the teams from Eastern Canada,” said head coach Martin Gautier.
Prior to the tournament the Mission blanked Outaouais of Quebec 4-0 and in the opening game shut out BLL (Bourassa-Laval-Lanaudiere) 6-0 with Lauryn Girard between the pipes in both games.
Lauren Henderson tallied three times and her twin sister, Kate, scored once and added two assists against BLL. The Hendersons are playing for Team Alberta at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C.
In the next game Marie-Eve Gautier potted a pair in the 4-3 win over Rive Sud.
The Nepean Ravens, the pre-tournament favourites, outshot the Mission 44-15 but lost 3-2. The Hendersons and Gautier scored in support of Girard’s stellar netminding. Haley Groenenboom also had two helpers.
“It was probably one of the best games we’ve played. It was a very close score,” said coach Gautier. “They were a very talented team and we definitely showed up for that game.”
The last game before the playoffs was the 4-3 decision against Laurentides. Sara DeRose led the way with one goal and two assists.
After finishing first in the preliminary round the Mission played BLL in the semifinals and with four minutes left in the game they let a 2-1 lead slip away and lost 3-2. Kate Henderson and Gautier lit the lamp.
“The key of the tournament for the team was our defensive play,” said coach Gautier. “We also killed a lot of five on threes. Unfortunately the negative part was that we were very undisciplined. We got a lot of penalties but our defence stepped it up and played very, very well so that was kind of the highlight of the weekend. We were able to shut down the other team from our goaltending to our defensive play.”
The Mission are 21-7-1 against AA teams with two games remaining before the Feb. 27 to March 1 provincials in St. Albert.
“The team is looking very good,” said coach Gautier. “It was a great time to have that tournament for us to have the team away from the province and the players kind of grew together during the weekend. The key going into provincials is to go in there as a team as we need to rely on all the players so that tournament was definitely great preparation.”
Last year the Mission finished 14th out of 18 teams as the lowest of the four Alberta teams at nationals in Regina.
“The players are ready. They have that experience from last year. (Nationals) was very new for most of the players so now I think that experience will show this year,” said coach Gauthier, who has 10 returning belles on the roster.
Every team at provincials – Edmonton Elite, Zone 5 Grit, Central Alberta Sting, Calgary U19AA, winners of the Ottawa tournament and the defending provincial champion, and the Mission – advance to nationals, March 25 to April 4 at Fort McMurray. Fewer eastern teams have committed to come out west for nationals this year so as a result all five teams qualified. The provincial winner will be Team Alberta at nationals and the other four teams will go as their club team.
“The No. 1 goal for the season is to represent Alberta so for us provincials are quite important,” said coach Gauthier.
The team’s next game is Feb. 22 against Zone 5 at 5:15 p.m. in Leduc.
ICE CHIPS: The junior U16AA Mission are 22-6-3 overall as the only undefeated team in the U19A division in the Black Gold League.
Sunday the juniors play the Edmonton Elite at 12:30 p.m. at River Cree Twin Rinks.
Provincials start Feb. 27 in St. Albert and all six junior teams advance to nationals in Fort McMurray.
The tween U14AA Mission are 17-12-4 overall before exhibition action this weekend against the Sting in Clive and Penhold.
Five of the six junior teams at the Feb. 27 to March 1 provincials in St. Albert will compete at the March 25 to 28 westerns in Calgary.
