A St. Albert high school student will play hockey with Bears this fall after scoring a national championship with the Edmonton Junior Oilers.
The Edmonton Junior Oilers White U18 AAA team beat the Saskatoon Stars 7–3 during the championship game April 26 to win the gold medal in the 2025 Esso Cup. It was the first time an Edmonton minor hockey team had ever won a Hockey Canada national championship. Held April 20–26 at Lloydminster’s Centennial Civic Centre, the event saw six teams face off before a packed audience for the national U18 AAA women’s hockey title.
Junior Oilers assistant captain Paige Smith scored the first goal just two minutes into the game on the power play, with teammates Evie Hanson and Keira Grant netting two more goals before the end of the first period. The Stars tried to rally with a pair of goals, but were beaten back by a barrage of four in the net in the second period.
St. Albert Catholic High Grade 12 student Cadence Richards scored one of those goals in the second period with an assist from teammates Tayah Wallace and Keira Grant. She also played a little rough in the third period, spending four minutes total in the penalty box for boarding and body-checking.
Richards said it was a surreal experience when she realized her team had won the gold.
“The crowd was packed. There was just so much noise.”
Lifelong player
Richards said she started playing hockey when she was four after seeing her two brothers doing it. She played two years with the St. Albert Raiders Slash before friends and a desire to try something new before university prompted her to switch to the Junior Oilers.
Richards was a great shot on the ice and a solid defenceman who was well respected by her teammates, said coach Joel Lenius.
“She’s just an awesome person and we’re pretty fortunate she chose to come here in her last year.”
The Junior Oilers were stacked with talent this year, with 17 out of its 20 players now having signed on with post-secondary teams, Lenius said. (The other three were too young to do so.) The squad went nearly undefeated in this year’s regular season, losing just one game in overtime, won all their games during the playoffs and the Pacific Regional Championship, and outscored their opponents 31–7 at nationals, the team’s website reports.
Richards said the team’s shared values and off-ice bonds gave them the communication and chemistry needed to succeed.
“We just loved showing up at the rink every day.”
Richards said she planned to play hockey with the Brown University’s Brown Bears this fall while studying to become an orthopaedic or plastic surgeon. She has made lifelong friendships with her fellow Junior Oilers, and looked forward to facing off against some of them in her post-secondary career.
Richards said playing amateur hockey had taught her important life skills such as time management and socialization. She encouraged any students out there with goals or dreams to stick with them.
“You’ll overcome anything.”
Full game stats and footage of the 2025 Esso Cup gold medal game are available at bit.ly/4jOC6nH.
