The St. Albert Ringette Association was on a Mission at the Wood tournament.
Three Mission AA teams competed against the best of the best in western Canada at the Terwillegar Community Recreation Centre last weekend and the U14 tweens and U19 belles skated away with gold and the U16 juniors finished fourth after missing out on a semifinal berth because of goal differential in pool play.
The most dramatic victory in Sunday's finals was the 5-4 overtime decision by the tweens to cap off a comeback from a 3-0 deficit at the half against the Winnipeg Angels, who were undefeated this season.
"The girls never gave up. They believe in themselves and they really feed off momentum. When something good happens to us they really feed off that and it just seems to change the whole game," said U14 head coach Travis Sawchuk. "It's quite a resilient team. Our first game Saturday against Calgary we were down two goals in probably the first three minutes of the game and the girls fought back (for the 6-6 tie)."
Shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill by Vail Ketsa and Emma Durocher pulled the tweens to within one at 4-3 and during a five-on-three power play Ketsa fired the equalizer.
Abby Klatt sniped the winner with 2:32 left in the five-minute sudden-death period. Grace Haney and Genevieve Pallot assisted on Klatt's second goal of the game.
Hannah Lavoy's netminding exploits kept the tweens in contention after the slow start.
"You could definitely feel the momentum changing in the game," Sawchuk said of the second-half rally. "In the first half, we probably dominated the first five minutes of play. We had possession of the ring the whole time and we had some good opportunities and we didn't put it away and then for whatever reason the momentum seemed to swing after that period of time and they had the ring in our zone for a good portion of the time. They're a good, powerful team and they wore us down a little bit."
The third time was the charm for the tweens in their third tournament final of the season after losing the St. Albert Turkey Ring to the Central Alberta Sting and the Bernadette Price Memorial AA Tournament in Saskatoon to the Edmonton Elite.
"With us being in two previous gold medal games and losing the girls were well prepared and had high expectations for themselves to do well," Sawchuk said. "I don't think we saw the nervousness this game as we've seen in the past games."
In the pool two of the 10-team U14 draw the tweens finished first at 3-0-1 with wins of 6-4 against the Manitoba Magic and identical 4-3 scores against the Sting and BVRA Wild of Winnipeg (the game winner was scored with 9.6 seconds remaining in the last round robin game). The tweens also tied Calgary 6-6.
With only one returning player on the roster the tweens' overall record is 11-8-1, which includes games against U16 AA teams in the Black Gold League.
"We're a well rounded team that competes hard and that's probably our strength," Sawchuk said of the provincial hopefuls for westerns.
Golden Belles
In the U19 final, the belles beat Calgary for the second time in three weeks, a major feat considering they failed to register a win last season against the provincial champions.
It was 3-2 for Calgary at the half as Lauren Henderson and Marie-Eve Gautier scored but after the break Sara DeRose's hat-tick and Gautier's winner with 10:15 to play turned the tide.
Shots were 36-18 for Calgary as Lauryn Girard backstopped the belles to the 6-4 win.
Henderson also added four assists and Gautier had a pair of helpers.
"Going into this year one of our goals was to compete with Calgary on a consistent basis. In the round robin of the first tournament we actually beat Calgary (at the seven-team Bernadette Price competition). We didn't beat them in the final game (4-3 loss) but this time the girls had confidence that we did it once and we can probably beat them again," said U19 head coach Martin Gautier.
In the nine-team belle division, Calgary finished first at 3-0-1 for a berth in the final and in the semifinal the belles knocked off the Edmonton Elite 4-1. Both teams were 3-1 in pool play.
The belles advanced after posting wins of 8-4 against TORL (Thompson-Okanagan), 4-3 against the Winnipeg Angels, and 11-4 against the Central Alberta Sting and were shutout by Calgary 2-0.
"All 14 players, which includes the goalie, contributed to our success. There wasn't one player or two players or any superstars who made a difference. Everyone was on the same page. The team has very good chemistry compared to some of the teams I've coached in the past," Gautier said.
Nine players, plus Girard, are returnees.
"It's a very experienced team," Gautier said
The belles are 11-3-1 against U19 AA teams this season.
"We've had a good start but we don't want to peak to early," Gautier said. "We want to represent Alberta this year at nationals, which is going to be hosted in Fort McMurray. I would say all five teams (in the province) are very competitive this year. It's going to be a battle all the way to the end and the team that peaks at the right time will probably represent Alberta."
Junior results
In the nine-team U16 draw the juniors finished in a three-way tie with Calgary Pursuit and Zone 5 Pack at 3-1-0 but goal differential bumped the juniors into the playoff for fourth place and they doubled the Calgary Hype 8-4.
In round robin play, the juniors defeated the Lower Mainland Thunder 9-2, the Hype 6-4 and Central Alberta Sting 9-7 and lost 9-2 to the Winnipeg Angels for a plus-six goals for/against total, compared to plus-10 for the Pursuit and plus-nine for the Elite.
The Angels thumped the Pack 8-1 in the final.
Katie Shigeta and Taylor Ostafichuk scored 10 goals apiece in five games at the Wood.
ICE CHIPS: This is the second year for the U16 AA and U19 AA teams in St. Albert ringette and the third year for the U14 AA team.
