The St. Albert SWAG lit up the Zone 5 playoffs like a Christmas tree last weekend.
The U16 A junior ringette team outscored the Sherwood Park Ambition 9-1 Friday and the Beaumont Blaze 15-2 Sunday in the preliminary round to qualify for the 2012 Alberta Winter Games.
“That’s what our team has been doing most of the year. We score a lot of goals,” said co-coach Martin Gautier. “Typically we score eight to nine goals per game. That’s been the pattern. Fifteen goals is not normally how many we score in a game.”
A victory Thursday against the Spruce Grove Core would clinch first place in the four-team round robin. Game time is 7:45 p.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
The Core and Ambition battled to a 2-2 draw Saturday.
The top two teams meet in the final Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at Millennium Place. If the SWAG finishes 3-0 in the round robin, the second-place team would have to beat them twice to advance to the winter games. If that happens, the sudden-death playoff would be Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Spruce Grove.
The winner will represent the Black Gold/Yellowhead region at the Feb. 9-12 provincial competition at Stony Plain, Spruce Grove and Parkland County.
The SWAG are 24-3 overall, with 243 goals scored and 73 against. The three losses were in tournament finals: twice against the Medicine Hat Mayhem, including 3-2 in overtime at the St. Albert Turkey Ring in October, and once against the Core at the Platinum Ring in Sherwood Park last month.
“Our team is very strong this year,” Gautier said. “We have a lot of experienced players.”
Qualifying for the winter games is the first step towards a provincial title and a berth at the western Canadians in Kelowna.
“That’s the big goal for the season,” Gautier said.
