The St. Albert Mission ringette teams were shut out of the medals at the 30th annual Wood Tournament after winning two of the three divisions last year.
Last weekend at the Terwilliger Community Recreation Centre, the U19AA belles and U14AA tweens finished seventh after their 2014 gold-medal performances and the U16AA juniors placed fifth.
The belles compiled a 1-3-1 record and are 8-7-2 overall in league and tournaments.
The previous weekend, the 2015 national bronze medallists were 3-1-1 as silver medallists at the Bernadette Price Memorial AA Tournament in Saskatoon.
"What we're really missing right now is some practice time. Our schedule has been really busy with tournaments and league games," said head coach Corey De La Mare.
The belles opened the Wood with a 5-1 win over the Lower Mainland (B.C.) Thunder. They carried the majority of the play and maintain ring possession but the difference maker was the opposing netminder otherwise the score would have been higher.
The next game was against Calgary Red and the belles controlled the action while building up a 4-1 lead despite missing a couple of prime scoring chances. Calgary tallied late before the half and added two more goals to knot the count. The belles were unsuccessful on some glorious opportunities to regain the lead and Calgary scored the 5-4 winner with 30 seconds remaining.
The third game was against the Central Alberta Sting, the class of the province. A slow start left the belles trailing 5-0 at the half and they ended up losing 8-2.
A lack of finish against the Regina Bandits led to a 3-3 draw. Once again the belles controlled the game and possession but gave up another late goal as Regina tied it up.
The belles ended up playing Calgary for sixth place and held the upper hand in the first half. They led 3-1 until Calgary got to within a goal with 30 seconds left until the break. Calgary eventually forced overtime and scored to win 4-3.
De La Mare described the seventh-place result as an under achievement for the team. The belles have eight players back from last season's 34-14-1 lineup.
The belles play the open A Edmonton Relit tonight at 9:15 p.m. at Michael Cameron Arena, followed by games against St. Albert open A at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Go Auto Arena, the U of A ringette team at 6 p.m. Saturday at Alexandria Park in Leduc and the U of A alumni at 9:45 p.m. Monday.
Mission juniors
The U16AA juniors won three and lost two at the Wood and their overall record is 14-5-2.
The juniors started with wins of 6-2 over the Central Alberta Sting and 7-3 against the Regina Stingers, followed by losses of 5-4 to Calgary Blue and 7-2 to the Manitoba Magic. The last game was a 3-2 decision against the Winnipeg Angels.
Head coach Travis Sawchuk said the team's showing wasn't too bad, noting Calgary's winning goal with seven seconds to play was a heartbreaker.
In previous tournaments, the juniors won the 17th annual St. Albert Turkey Ring and finished 1-2-1 in Saskatoon.
The juniors have nine players back from the 31-12-3 team that finished seventh at the 2015 nationals.
The next tournament is the Central Alberta AA Ice Breaker, Dec. 11 to 13 in Lacombe.
Mission tweens
The U14AA tweens shared third place in their pool with the Central Alberta Sting and missed the fifth/sixth game by one goal in the tiebreaker at the Wood.
The team's 2-2-1 record included an 8-1 loss to Calgary Blue, 3-3 tie with the Sting, 10-4 loss to Buffalo Plains Rush and victories of 7-6 against the Sherwood Park Surge and 4-2 against Zone 5 Edge in the seventh/eighth game.
Head coach Len Samletzki said the juniors played strong in four of their five games and received good scoring and support from Genevieve Pallot and Vail Ketsa, in addition to strong goaltending.
Samletzki added the young roster of tweens – only three returnees from the team's seventh-place result at the 2015 westerns and 24-21-4 overall record – is playing well as a team and working hard in every game.
The juniors are 6-6-2 after the Wood. They finished 1-1-1 at the Turkey Ring and split four games in Saskatoon.
The next tournament is the Esso Golden Ring in mid-January in Calgary.
