The St. Albert Surge are peaking at the time as the host team for the Ringette Alberta tween 14B championship.
The Surge rose to the challenge in the deciding playoff game to determine the St. Albert Ringette Association rep for this weekend's provincials.
Last week's 4-1 victory over the St. Albert Fury was the Surge's best game of the season, according to centre Kyla Dorn, after the Fury tied the best-of-three series with a 4-1 decision. The Surge won the opener 3-1.
"I could tell we were really focused before the game and I just had a feeling we were going to play really good," said Dorn, who helped seal the deal with a goal in the last period. "We were really confident and come out to win."
The Surge will now compete for provincial honours at the 12-team tournament.
"It's really exciting because we'll really get a chance to come together as a team at provincials and prove to everyone that we could win and we're a good team," Dorn said. "We really have to play like we did in our last game. We have to come focused and we need to have fun too."
The Surge plays the Drayton Valley Lightning 1:15 p.m. Friday in pool B at Go Auto Arena and the Lethbridge Force at 7 p.m. at Riviere Qui Barre.
This will be Surge's first meeting with Lethbridge and their only game against Drayton Valley ended in a loss after a 2-2 stalemate for the longest time.
"I know we can beat them, we just have to play our best," Dorn said.
Pool A consists of the South Calgary Lightning, Fort Saskatchewan Ice Squad and Spruce Grove Rage.
The Spruce Grove Talons, Strathmore Ice Rebels and Cochrane Rockies are grouped in pool C.
Pool D features the Sherwood Park Riot, Calgary Northwest BADDitude and Calgary Northwest Adrenaline.
Where the teams finish in pool play determines Saturday's playoff pairings and the results will finalize Sunday's match-ups at Akinsdale Arena for 11th and 12th place at 7 a.m., ninth and 10th place at 8:45 a.m., seventh and eighth place at 10:30 a.m., fifth and sixth place at 12:15 p.m., the bronze-medal game at 2 p.m. and gold-medal game at 3:45 p.m.
Visit www.ringettealberta.com or www.stalbertringette.com for the 28-game provincial schedule.
Dorn, 12, believes the Surge are playing their best ringette when it matters the most.
"We've really come together as a family and play really well," said the Grade 7 Lorne Akins school student. "We have really hard work on our team and we really trust each other out there."
The Surge have lost more games than they've won this season.
"It's been interesting. It's been up and then down. The thing with the girls is they've really been able to get up for the meaningful games and they really play well," said head coach Corey De La Mare. "I think we've struggled a little bit with confidence throughout the year but it's coming. They've also learned a lot because we've had some really good younger female role model coaches that have really taught a lot about the game to them. At times, it's maybe been a little bit of information overload but when we let them loose and they get up for a big game we just tell them to believe in themselves and they've been able to do that, but it's all about big games for them."
De La Mare pointed to two games where the Surge showed how good they really are.
"Winning our position to host provincials was a big highlight, as well as our performance in the Cochrane tournament where we lost 3-2 to Fort Saskatchewan. They're probably one of the top three teams in the province and we played with them. That game could've gone either way so that was a good tournament. That was a bit of a turning point for us," he said.
This is the 12th year as a ringette coach for De La Mare, one of the fastest players in St. Albert Rugby Football Club history, and like the majority of male coaches in the sport he discovered the fastest game on ice when his daughters – Sydney (belle U19AA Mission), Ellie (Surge) and Kate (U10 Step Three Tenacious) – wanted to play.
"It's a challenge in many ways but I enjoy it. It's my balance in life, I guess. The challenge has been understanding this sport, which is a sport I've never played, and every man comes into this sport thinking it's hockey but it's not. It's a lot more like basketball and a lot more like lacrosse than hockey," De La Mare said. "How you connect with girls and how you motivate girls is a lot different than motivating boys too. The motto we use a lot is girls need to feel good to play good, where boys need to play good to feel good. We've got to make sure you butter them up a lot and make them feel confident, that's the motivation as opposed to kind of getting in their face and using testosterone. It's very different that way."
Slash pure gold
A perfect end to a near perfect season for the St. Albert Slash ended with a petite U12B provincial championship.
The Slash finished 46-4 overall after battling back from a 3-2 deficit at the break to edge the Hinton Ring Robbers 4-3 Sunday in Strathmore.
Mikayla Sarapuk's hat-trick performance included the tying marker with 2:50 minutes remaining and the game winner with 55 seconds on the clock.
It's the first petite U12B banner for the St. Albert Ringette Association since 2003.
The Slash went undefeated at provincials en route to their fourth gold medal in five tournaments this season.
The Leduc Jaguars defeated Edmonton for bronze.
The Slash are Renee Burke, Janell Demers, Bryn Dunbar, Emmerson Fahl, Sydney Fevin, Jamie Grimshaw, Aurora Johnson, Zoe Kosloski, Sarah Nowell, Gabrielle Scott, Mackenzie Waples, Sarapuk, goalie Audrey Johnson, head coach Todd Kosloski and assistant coaches Chris Waples and Debbie Johnson.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
