The 13th win in a row and the 31st in 38 games for the St. Albert Force was pure gold at the U12A Ringette Alberta championship.
The Force doubled the Calgary Bowview Kiss 4-3 in Sunday’s final at Airdrie for a U12A provincial repeat by the St. Albert Ringette Association.
Last year, the St. Albert Power finished 51-1 as the U12A provincial champions and three returning players – Brielle Lajoie, Emma Kondro and netminder Raegan Schulha – contributed to the Force’s successful season.
The 15-person roster included five players from last year’s U12B team, two players from the U12C division and five first-year players from U10.
“I can honestly say that no one anticipated this from our team,” said coach Corey De La Mare. “As coaches, we certainly started to gain more confidence and believed we could do this from December onwards (20-1-2 record since Nov. 26) but this is still greater than we thought we could achieve. It’s a massive accomplishment for this group of special athletes, especially coming off the generational team at U12A last year where they were expected to win from the beginning of the year.”
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the Force picture.
The Force qualified for the eight-team provincials with wins of 5-3 against the Sherwood Park Storm and 7-2 against Beaumont in pool A of the north playdowns.
In pool play at provincials, the Force posted wins of 5-2 against the Calgary Northwest Impact, 5-3 against Bowview and 7-4 against the Calgary Northwest Noise.
The Impact handed the Force their last loss back in January at the Calgary Golden Ring but at provincials the St. Albert squad controlled the game from start to finish.
The next game the Force trailed by a goal with two minutes left before scoring three times in a 60 second span against Bowview.
First place was on the line in pool A against the Noise and the Force was down 4-1 at the half despite some bad luck while controlling the opening period but the tide turned in the last period as the Force busted loose for six unanswered goals.
The semifinal against the host Airdrie Sting, the Zone 2 league champion, was a back-and-forth contest that was decided late in the last period on the go-ahead goal by the Force.
The final against Bowview featured a dominating performance by the Force in the first period for the 2-0 lead at the half despite staunch netminding by the opposition.
In the last period, the Force never surrendered control of the game to cap of the championship victory.
“Overall, the Force played as a complete team where everyone knew their role and responsibilities and we needed everyone to contribute to win the tournament,” De La Mare said. “We had some incredible showings by different players game in and game out and many unspoken heroes throughout.”
The Canadian Ringette Championships start Monday morning for the St. Albert Mission U19AA and U16AA teams in Leduc and Beaumont.
The U19AA belle division consists of 16 teams divided into two pools and the U16AA junior division features three pools and 21 teams overall.
The U19AA Mission are seeded second out of five Alberta teams at nationals as the Ringette Alberta silver medallists.
Monday the Mission plays Nova Scotia at 11:30 a.m. in Beaumont and the Manitoba Magic at 4:30 p.m. in Leduc, Tuesday against the Central Alberta Sting at 11:30 a.m. and Prince Edward Island at 6:30 p.m. in Leduc, Wednesday against Saskatchewan at 1:30 p.m. in Leduc and Thursday against Rive Sud of Quebec at 11 a.m. and Ontario at 3:30 p.m. in Beaumont.
The U16AA Mission are seeded fourth out of eight Alberta teams at nationals after losing the provincial bronze-medal game in overtime.
The Mission games are Monday against the Regina Stingers at 9:30 a.m. and the Cambridge Turbos at 5 p.m. in Leduc, Tuesday against BLL of Quebec at 8 a.m. and Nova Scotia at 1 p.m. in Beaumont, Wednesday against the Manitoba Magic at 2:30 p.m. in Leduc and Thursday against Alberta (Calgary Pace) at 8 a.m. in Leduc
Results from pool play determine the playoff pairings for the belles and juniors.
The medal finals are April 1.
Visit www.ringette.ca for schedules and results.
The Black Gold RUSH skate into the National Ringette League championship tournament Monday.
The first game in the eight-team round robin is against the Edmonton WAM! at 1 p.m. Leduc.
Tuesday the RUSH plays the Atlantic Attack at 10 a.m. in Beaumont and the Cambridge Turbos at 4 p.m. in Leduc.
Wednesday’s games are against the Calgary RATH at 10 a.m. in Beaumont and the Ottawa Ice at 4 p.m. in Leduc
Thursday the RUSH face-off against the Waterloo Wildfire at 12:30 p.m. in Beaumont and Friday’s start time against the Richmond Hill Lightning is 8 a.m. in Beaumont.
Visit www.ringette.ca for the playoff schedule and results.
The majority of the RUSH players are graduates of the St. Albert Ringette Association.
The RUSH returns to the NRL championship tournament in the team’s second year of existence.
Last year the RUSH finished eighth out of eight teams at nationals in London, Ont.
