The breakthrough performance of winning the Esso Golden Ring bodes well for the U14AA St. Albert Mission at provincials and westerns.
“Our ultimate goal for the season is to win provincials and go into the Western Canadian Ringette Championships as Team Alberta and follow up with another gold at westerns,” said head coach Corey De La Mare of the Mission, 21-8-3 after edging out Calgary White 5-4 in Sunday’s final at the 33rd annual Calgary tournament.
The first AA team in the St. Albert Ringette Association to finish first at the Golden Ring also knocked off the highly ranked Zone 5 Blaze 3-2 on Jazzi Fevin’s overtime goal in the semifinal.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” De La Mare said. “The Golden Ring is a tournament that all teams measure themselves by as it’s the largest tournament in the world (169 teams in 18 divisions this year) and a hard tournament to win due to the format (number of games over three days) and the attraction of high-quality teams towards the end of the season when all teams start to peak from a performance perspective.
“Our (six) returning players had a sniff at winning last year, but we suffered an overtime loss (3-2) against Zone 2 in the final so this year was a bit of redemption.”
This is the seventh season for the U14AA Mission in SARA and the sixth for the U16AA and U19AA Mission teams.
The U14AA provincials are March 15 to 17 at Sherwood Park and westerns for the U14AA, U16A, U19A and open A divisions are March 27 to 31 at Servus Credit Union Place.
“There is no question that our performance at the Esso Golden Ring is a good barometer for our preparation, our confidence and understanding of where we stand among our provincial competition,” De La Mare said. “The competition in Alberta at this level is very high and any team has the ability to win any tournament. There is no question there is a large target on our back now, which we’ll use as motivation to not settle and continue to get better and work harder. Our confidence is high right now and we feel we have a great opportunity to meet our season goals.”
The Mission cranked it up after the tournament-opening 3-2 loss to Calgary Red – the team the Mission beat 2-1 in the final for a championship repeat at the Bernadette Price Memorial Tournament in November at Saskatoon – with 4-3 victories against Calgary White and the Winnipeg Angels in pool play before starting off the playoff round with a 4-1 decision against Calgary Blue.
De La Mare credits the coaching staff of Joel Lajoie, Dolic Arlinghaus, Marie-Eve Gautier (WAM! player in the National Ringette League), Brittany Kraychy (Mission alumna, open A player and former NRL Black Rush player) and Darcy Owen for prepping the Mission to play like champions.
“We went over our opponent’s scouting report on us to read that we’re relentless, tenacious, a strong forechecking/backchecking team and we work harder than anyone else. Those intangibles are hard to counter. There is simply no strategy besides working hard,” De La Mare said. “Our coaches worked with this group of athletes two years ago (as the 2017 U12A Force provincial champions) and the remarkable assets this group have is their work ethic, resilience, ability to deal with adversity and response to feedback. In particular, this past weekend the team exhibited a consistent high level of effort and execution among all positions and that helped with confidence, which snowballed as the tournament went on.
“But first and foremost, we outworked every opponent and the girls know it and are proud of that.”
The will to win was evident in the semifinal against Zone 2, a team consisting of players from the surrounding communities of Calgary that handed the Mission a 6-1 loss in the final of the 20th annual Turkey Ring in October at St. Albert.
“It was a very tight back-and-forth game,” De La Mare said. “Zone 2 is a very high-calibre team that all of the Alberta U14AA teams perceive as the top team in Alberta, and likely Western Canada, and strive to beat.
“The psychological warfare we had with Zone 2 during our pre-game warm-up also may have increased our chances of winning.”
In the final, the Mission adjusted mightily down 3-2 at the break and the team’s first lead of the game was Natalia Cesarz’s goal to snap a 4-4 deadlock with 6:58 remaining in the last period.
Cesarz and Fevin are among the returnees from last year’s provincial and western finalists - 41-9-3-1 overall as five-time silver medallists in seven tournaments.
The next tournament before provincials is the 44th annual Gloucester Cumberland Invitational starting Thursday. The U16AA and U19AA Mission teams are also attending.
“We hope it will help keep the momentum going and continue to build our confidence," De La Mare said.
The Mission also have four league games left before provincials.
ICE CHIPS – SARA was also represented at the Golden Ring by the U19A Selects (1-2-1), U16AA Mission (3-2), U14B Shock (0-3), U12A Flash (2-2) and U10 Step 2 Devils (friendship series).
