The St. Albert Power are basking in the glow of a brilliant season as Ringette Alberta champions.
The 51st win in 52 games for the U12A team was 10-5 against Bowview Nemesis in Sunday’s final at Go Auto Arena.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Eric Lavoy, head coach of the Power. “This is one of the few times that St. Albert ringette has only had one U12A team and as a result of that you were able to take what we believed when we drafted that team were the top 15 ladies and each one of those girls played an unbelievable role from start to finish. They were so committed, so coachable, so willing to learn and a work ethic that was second to none. They were so motivated.”
The Power were united toward the same common goal.
“When we pulled this team together they all understood there is a unique opportunity to have some pretty fantastic success this year,” Lavoy said. “One of the very first meetings we had together as a team, we as a coaching staff put together a goals sheet for each of the girls. They were to fill those out and identify three personal goals and three team goals.”
Lavoy added that in almost all 15 submissions the girls listed medaling at provincials as a goal.
Winning provincials was a team effort from the season opener to the last game.
“We made this year about our team and not about individuals on this team,” Lavoy said. “These girls came from teams historically where there would be two all-stars on a team that really carried the weight and the burden and the workload of that team and we put all those girls together in one group and there was no egos. They put it aside. They became a team and we won this year genuinely as a team. We never had to shorten benches. They played their hearts out and they did it together.”
The first St. Albert U12A championship since 2012 started at the 17th annual Turkey Ring tournament.
“It was the very first set of games for the course of the year and many people came to us afterwards and said you shouldn’t have won Turkey Ring because when you win Turkey Ring you’ll never win provincials. You peaked too early. Of course, it’s a bit of a running joke but there’s some truth behind that statement,” Lavoy said. “We started the year right off the hop with a gold medal. We started right at the top of the ladder and we stayed there all year long. It’s very difficult to be at the top because there are so many teams that saw us for what we were and they took a hard run at us time and time again and our girls just never quit. They understood what was at stake. They had a real hungry drive to win and they just never quit.
“We went into this weekend understanding that teams were going to take a run at us. The pressure was probably more with the coaches than it was with the players but they certainly understood what was happening and they committed themselves to getting the job done.”
The most important game of the season was the one the Power lost: 8-6 to Sherwood Park Shock in the final of the 30th annual Calgary Golden Ring in January.
“The fact that we lost it in a gold medal game was probably even more beneficial. It brought back the reminder of what it’s like to lose a big game,” Lavoy said. “We kept talking about the importance of being able to stay focused, stay sharp and play a game like it’s 0-0 all game long. We always said to them if we fall asleep against a good team at the wrong time it could flush our goal. That was an important message that we continued to have with our ladies all year long.”
The Power lit up the 12-team provincials with victories of 6-1 against South Calgary Ambush, 10-6 against Edmonton Blast and 7-4 against Bowview Fusion in pool C and in the crossover game beat the pool A Leduc Jaguars 8-3.
The 4-1 semifinal decision against the Cochrane Rockies was decided in the second period.
“Cochrane played us very, very tight. We had a really tough time getting through on our transition and that’s the type of game that we have,” Lavoy said. “I believe we only gave up 17 shots on goal but we only got 34 and we normally average probably close to over 40 shots a game so for Cochrane to be able to hold onto us like that for that duration of time was a testament to how hard they were playing.”
Jamie Grimshaw, Zoe Kosloski, Jamie Reaper and Bridget Maxwell (empty net) scored and Reagan Schulha and Lauren Friesen shared netminding duties.
“We didn’t pull ahead until about eight minutes left in the second period, when we went up 2-1, and then once we got the next goal, the 3-1 goal, I think they realized that it was pretty much done for them to come back after that. It’s pretty tough when the defence we have is so stifling for teams. I think we averaged about 8.6 goals per game and we gave up about 3.01.”
In the final, the Power focused their energies on stopping Bowview’s top player.
“We knew they had a workhorse in number seven so we put a game plan together to try and limit her ability to impact us and the very first shift she went in and buried one. It was a good lesson for our girls at that point because I think they realized what the coaches were saying actually had some merit so they beared down and we really took away the rest of number seven’s opportunities. I think she was scoring on average between three and five goals a game against other teams and I want to say she had five goals against Spruce Grove in the semifinal and we held her to two in this game.”
Janie Lajoie’s hat-trick, a pair by Sarah Nowell and singles from Grimshaw, Maxwell, Gabrielle Scott, Amy Bamber and Nyah Bodnarchuk paced the attack. Schulha and Friesen split time in net.
“We had some unbelievable goal scorers on this team and through the course of the finals this weekend some of those goal scorers played more of a predominant role defensively rather than they did than filling the net,” Lavoy said. “We won games with girls that scored goals through the course of the year but we also won games on the backs of girls that maybe didn’t fill the net as much as some of the others did and it goes to the depth of the team and the commitment that we had of being a team.”
The Power roster featured seven returning U12A players, plus four skaters from last year’s U12B provincial champions: Grimshaw, Kosloski, Nowell and Scott.
“Many of the girls on this team will go on to play AA ringette at some point in time in their ringette life as long as they stay connected to the game,” Lavoy said. “This year was a valuable experience for them in terms of really genuinely being able to understanding how to be part of a team and taking their ego and putting it aside and playing a role for the team to be successful.”
