St. Albert was a big Hit at provincials for the second year in a row.
The peewee female Hit repeated as gold medallists by going undefeated last weekend in Calgary.
“Our main goal was to win the provincial championship and we just worked our way towards it,” said head coach Dan Basterash. “There was a lot of pride in the room to do it again because we had five returning players from last year’s [47-0-2] team.”
The 2011 line-up of 12- and 13-year-old girls was comprised of Jamie Jones, Julia Kormysh, Kyrelle Skoye, Joely Bragg, Teresa Havens, Allyson Short, Hayley Basterash, Carly Chikie, Madison McCoy, Jean Kelsie, Carly Umbach, goalie Natalie Bender and twins Jaime and Janai Kidd. Affiliate players Lexie Drevant, Sarah Passek and Danica Rosen also contributed.
Most of the Hit players have played together the last four or five years at various levels.
“One thing that we did as coaches was put them in a situation so that no stone would be left unturned,” Basterash said. “We touched on key values of being successful. One of them was work ethic and the other one was having the passion to play. We also focused on physical fitness and nutrition.
“We have a great skilled team and girls who can put the puck into the net but in order to do it in a six game tournament [in three days] the way we did it at provincials, and use those skills in the later part of the game, we recognized we had to be as fit as possible. When you look at the breakdown of all the games we played we scored most of our goals in the last half of the games, which allowed us to be successful in those games.”
In Sunday’s final the Hit defeated Fort Saskatchewan 4-1, with the last goal deposited into an empty net.
“We tried to play a territorial type game and keep it in their end and pressure them as much as we could,” Basterash said. “We also tried to keep our players’ emotions in check and they did a pretty good job of that. Throughout the game we just kept reminding them that this isn’t over. It’s a 3-1 game and if they get a goal to make it 3-2 anything can happen. To their credit they didn’t get carried away and they continued to play and do the things they needed to do in order be successful.”
Jones, the team captain, led the charge with two goals and one assist. Umbach added one goal and two assists. Jamie Kidd also tallied.
In the semifinals the Hit doubled the host GHC Magic 6-3 and Fort Saskatchewan shaded Sherwood Park 3-2.
“The only team that has been giving us problems this year was Sherwood Park and we beat them 4-1 [in the round robin] so when they didn’t make the final it was a bit of a surprise,” Basterash said.
Jamie Kidd was the top scorer against the Magic with two goals and two assists. Short also potted a pair. Havens and Umbach sniped singles. Kormysh, Skoye and Jones picked up two assists apiece.
In the pool B draw, the Hit shut out GHC Storm 4-0, edged Red Deer 4-3, pounded Okotoks 10-2 and beat Sherwood Park. Jones racked up 10 goals and six assists in the round robin. Jamie Kidd notched four goals and six assists and Umbach filled the net four times.
The team’s record after provincials was 36-3-1, with 216 goals for and 52 against.
“It’s not a boastful comment, it’s a fact: we haven’t lost for a long time. We just always tend to outplay our opponents,” Basterash said. “A lot of the wins came before Christmas and since then, other than minor hockey week, we’ve been pretty much on pace just to get to our goal to be successful at provincials.”
Basterash surrounded himself with a wealth of coaching experience in assistants Gary Skoye, Dan Chikie, Bob Havens, Pius Bender and Glen Jones. The manager is Tara Bender.
“All the credit goes to the girls because ultimately after the puck drops they’re out there and they have to win the hockey game,” Basterash said.
