The Canadian Ringette Championships start Monday for the St. Albert Mission belles and juniors in London, Ont.
In pool play, the Mission U19AA belles skate against Equipe Quebec and Calgary Blue and the Mission U16AA juniors face Team Nova Scotia and Rive Sud.
The belles also have games against the Nepean Ravens, last year’s champions, and Team Nova Scotia and the juniors take on Gloucester-Cumberland and Team Ontario.
The crossover games begin Wednesday to determine the playoff pairings and the medal finals are April 9.
Visit www.crc2016.ca for schedules and results.
Last month at the AA provincials, all six U19 teams and six U16 teams qualified for nationals.
The belles finished sixth behind the Central Alberta Sting (Team Alberta), Calgary Blue, Edmonton Elite, Calgary Red and Zone 5 Grit.
The juniors placed fourth after losing the third-place game to Zone 5 Pack. Calgary Apex (Team Alberta), Calgary Blue, Sting and Elite also advanced to nationals.
Overall, the belles are 16-23-8 and the juniors are 27-16-7 after their recent pre-nationals tournaments.
Last year at nationals, the belles won bronze and the juniors placed seventh.
The Edmonton Black Gold Rush, a first-year National Ringette League team with strong St. Albert connections, make their debut at the Canadian Ringette Championships on Monday.
The Rush plays the Montreal Mission in the eight-team tournament at London, Ont.
The 2015 champion Cambridge Turbos (24-2-2), Atlantic Attack (20-7-1), Gloucester Devils (19-8-1), Ottawa Ice (17-11) and Montreal (21-5-2) are the Eastern Conference reps and Edmonton WAM! (21-3-2), Calgary RATH (16-9-1) and Rush (7-16-3) are the Western Conference teams at nationals.
The top three teams in the round robin advance to the medal finals.
Visit www.crc2016.ca for schedules and results.
The Rush finished fourth in the west and in the best-of-three playoff against the third-place B.C. Thunder (9-17) to determine the third western team at nationals won the deciding game 6-3 March 13 in St. Albert.
Danielle Pronovost of Stony Plain racked up five goals, Lauren Henderson of St. Albert also scored, captain Nikki Andruchow of St. Albert added two assists and Anj Grewal of St. Albert stopped 28 shots.
The Rush won the series opener 3-2 in Spruce Grove and lost game two 4-3 in St. Albert.
Pronovost finished the series with eight goals and Henderson and Andruchow had four points apiece.
