The St. Albert Mission AA ringette teams have finalized their rosters for another winning season playing the fastest game on ice.
The U19AA belles have eight players back from the 2015 national bronze medallists that finished 34-14-1 in the second season for belle AA program in the St. Albert Ringette Association.
Five belles are third-year players and three are returning for their second season.
The lineup of 15 skaters and two netminders includes three imports from Spruce Grove and four graduates from last season's U16AA juniors.
"Last year we felt we had one of the fastest teams in the province and I would argue that this year we are even faster top to bottom," said bench boss Corey De La Mare, an assistant coach with the 2015 provincial bronze medallists. "This year we have a bigger roster, which can be tougher to manage, but because of the types of players we have it affords us the ability to have different kinds of matchups against different teams because many of our players can play more than one position.
"With this said, I think we will have a more dynamic team."
The belles will compete in the open A league, which includes the Alberta Pandas and University of Alberta alumni team, along with other open-age teams consisting of players with AA experience who have played at the national level.
The first tournament is in Saskatoon in early November.
The AA provincials are Feb. 26 to 28 and the Central Alberta Sting are hosting.
Nationals are April 3 to 9 in London, Ont.
The U16AA juniors are coming off a seventh-place result at nationals and fifth-place effort at provincials in the Mission's second AA season.
The roster consists of nine returnees from the 31-12-3 Mission team, plus a pair from the U16A team and five from the U14AA tweens.
"Our team will be extremely fast that will work hard and be well balanced with everyone being able to contribute offensively," said coach Travis Sawchuk, who guided the U14AA tweens last season.
Provincials are at the home of the Central Alberta Sting in February and nationals are in April at London, Ont.
The U14AA tweens are returning three players from the team that placed fifth at provincials and seventh at westerns for an overall 24-21-4 record.
Five players are first-year tweens, which is 30 per cent of the U14 roster.
The 17th annual St. Albert Turkey Ring, Oct. 8 to 12, is the tweens' first tournament of the season.
Len Samletzki, the team's new head coach, described the tweens as a "fast skating and hard working team with excellent goaltending."
"Primary focus will be on skill development," he added. "Team goal is to reach the western championships."
The Central Alberta Sting are hosting provincials in February and westerns are in March at Richmond, B.C.
This is the fourth season for the tween AA program in St. Albert.
Black Gold Rush
There is a strong St. Albert connection to the National Ringette League's newest franchise.
The Edmonton Black Gold Rush roster features Marie-Eve Gautier, Lauryn Girard, twins Kate and Lauren Henderson, Cassie Pinkoski and Siobhan Scantland from the U19AA Mission, as well as St. Albert players Nikki Andruchow of the University of Alberta open A team, Anj Grewal of the Edmonton WAM! of the NRL and Sim Grewal.
Lauren Henderson is also member of the U21 national team that will compete in the junior division at worlds, Dec. 28 to Jan. 4 in Helsinki, Finland.
Martin Gautier and Al Henderson of St. Albert are the Rush assistant coaches and Paul Bechard is the head coach.
The arrival of the Rush gives the NRL four teams in the western conference and 15 overall, with 11 in the eastern conference.
The Rush will play a feature game against the U19AA Mission at the Turkey Ring tournament and their NRL debut is Oct. 18 against the Calgary RATH in Strathmore.
At nationals, WAM! was awarded bronze and RATH finished fourth out of eight teams. The Cambridge Turbos defeated the Richmond Hill Lightning for the gold.
ICE CHIPS: St. Albert ringette has been awarded the U12A petite provincial championship, March 18 to 20.
