The St. Albert SWAG ringette team is one win away from representing Zone 5 at the Alberta Winter Games after going undefeated in the U16 junior A qualification round.
Sunday’s playoff for the SWAG starts at 10:30 a.m. at Millennium Place. A loss would set the stage for a sudden-death playoff on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Spruce Grove.
“The last win is always the hardest one and the girls know that,” said Martin Gautier, co-coach of the 25-3 SWAG. “It’s one game at a time now. We’ll think about the second game if that happens, but right now we’re focusing on the next one.”
The winner advances to the Feb. 9 to 12 winter games at Stony Plain, Spruce Grove and Parkland County.
“The girls realize their goal is within reach now and they have one more game to perform well,” Gautier said. “The girls know they have the talent to do it, but they also know they have to work hard for it.”
The SWAG finished first in the four-team round robin after beating the Spruce Grove Core 6-1 Thursday at Mark Messier Arena.
The home team led 2-0 after the first period on goals by Sara Derose and Marie-Eve Gautier.
“Our goaltender [Keira Nystrom] kept us in the game quite a bit in the first period. She played very well to keep that score at 2-0,” said coach Gautier.
Two straight goals by Lauren Henderson and singles from Cassie Pinkoski and Derose rounded out the scoring. Henderson finished the game with four points.
“In the second we scored a couple of early goals. It kind of set the tone for the rest of the game and they weren’t able to come back,” said coach Gautier.
The best is still to come from the SWAG after their third win in four games against the Core this season.
“There is room for improvement. I don’t think that was our best game,” said coach Gautier.
Last weekend the SWAG posted convincing wins of 9-1 against the Sherwood Park Ambition and 15-2 against the Beaumont Blaze to start the round robin.
