Finishing third overall at the Western Canadian Ringette Championships was a learning experience for the St. Albert Surge.
The belles won two and lost three at the five-team tournament last week in Regina.
“Westerns was a great experience for our team and even though we came up short of our goal, the players should be very proud of their performances and accomplishments at this tournament. All of the five teams were extremely competitive against one another and there were no easy games,” said Al Henderson, co-coach of the 41-7-1 Surge.
As Team Alberta the Surge placed third in the round robin at 2-2, with 19 goals for and 15 against, and in the third-versus-second semifinal fell 5-4 to Manitoba.
Manitoba went on to lose the final 5-4 to the undefeated Saskatchewan squad.
“All of the games we lost were against the gold and silver medallists and they were all one-goal games, other than the empty net goal (in the 6-4 loss in the round-robin opener) versus Saskatchewan,” Henderson said.
In the semifinal Manitoba opened the scoring with two goals before the 12-minute mark and led 3-2 after the first period.
In the last period Manitoba struck twice with the man advantage to finish the game with three power-play goals.
Lauren Henderson potted a pair and added two helpers for the Surge. Jordan Hodge also tallied twice and had one assist.
“We started well and for the most part dominated the play but we were not able to capitalize and as is so often the case those missed opportunities came back to haunt us,” said coach Henderson. “We did fight back and to the girls’ credit they never quit but we were never able to overcome the deficit.”
Lauren was the Surge’s top point producer at westerns with 14 in five games and her eight goals were one less than Hodge’s team-leading nine. Hodge ranked second in points with 12.
Isabella Tosto was third in team scoring with seven points and Kate Henderson had six.
Lauren, a centre/forward, and Kate, a defenceman, were both selected to the U19 all-star team.
The Surge picked up netminders Laura Cormier from the other St. Albert belle A team and Christine Chauvet of the Spruce Grove T.E.A.R, silver medallists at the belle A provincials, for the tournament because netminder Lauryn Girard was ruled ineligible for westerns after playing for Team USA at the U19 world championship in December in London, Ont.
Cormier was honoured as the top U19 netminder in the skills competition.
Cormier and Chauvet participated at westerns before on winning teams.
The Surge lineup featured two returning players from the 2012 western champion St. Albert Quantum – forward Diana de Jong and defenceman Theresa Fraser – and only one third-year belle with Tosto at forward.
“We are a relatively young team at the U19 level and many of our players had never experienced competition at this level so hopefully we will be able to build on this experience in the future,” said coach Henderson.
