The Westside Heat avenged a pair of losses this season to their namesakes from Prince George to capture the Ringette BC U-19B provincial championship on the weekend in Port Coquitlam.
Shyla McMullen’s third goal of the season — assisted by Destiny McCallum at 11:43 of overtime — sealed a 3-2 victory in the title game on Sunday for the Westsiders, who were also selected as the Fair Play Award winners in the season-ending tournament for a second consecutive year.
Westside, on the short end of a 5-4 decision against Prince George in their first game of round-robin play, had opened the scoring in the first half of the final on a goal by Tessa Wotherspoon, the provincial tournament’s most valuable player. While PG rebounded to take a 2-1 lead early in the second half, Sydnie McCann pushed through fatigue to send the game into overtime with a marker late in regulation time.
Also instrumental in the come-from-behind gold-medal win was the defensive play of Dakota Roy, Cheyenne McCallum, Sadie Clough and Emma Girard, while goaltender Nick Csek made numerous heroic saves to steal would-be goals from the Prince George snipers. Westside forwards Maci Dyck and Erin Brown pitched in defensively as well by causing turnovers and creating scoring opportunities for the 2017 champions.
Coach, Ray Roy, attributed much of the team’s success to having a “good dressing room”.
“The dressing room was always full of smiles and laughter,” he pointed out. “When I walked into the room for our pre-game talk, I had to get them to focus on the task at hand. Sometimes I think they forgot why they were there, but then I remembered that I had it backwards.”
Roy noted that at the beginning of the season the Heat didn’t have enough players to ice a team, but team manager, Loreen McCann, worked tirelessly to put the squad together.
“A few girls contemplated playing in Kelowna this year if the WRA (Westside Ringette Association) couldn’t get enough players,” explained Roy. “Then a few girls came out of retirement and we picked up a player and a goalie who had no to place to play in Kelowna and added a U16 girl.
“From then on the Heat were ‘hot, hot, hot!’”
RINGLETS: The Heat completed a 2016-17 medal trifecta by winning the gold at provincials. They earlier took the silver medal at the West Coast Classic tournament in Richmond and claimed the bronze at the Sweetheart tournament in Kelowna . . . Westside redeemed themselves in the provincial semifinal by defeating Northwest Vancouver 6-0 after going 3-1-1 in round-robin play . . . The Heat had lost to the Northwest Van team in the gold-medal game at their previous tournament . . . Game MVP awards at the provincial championship were Nick Csek, Dakota Roy, Erin Brown and Sadie Clough, while other most valuable awards this season were presented to Emma Girard, Destiny McCallum and Sydnie McCann . . . Co-coach Mike Dyck was instrumental in juggling the Heat forwards to match the opponents best. . .and none of this would have happened without the work of team manager Loreen McCann and the support of a great group of parents.
Team captain, Nigella Russell, scored 15:45 into overtime in the final to lift the Kelowna Rage to a 2-1 victory over Coquitlam-Moody and to a Ringette BC under-14A championship in Surrey.
The winning goal, assisted by Talia Russouw, capped a comeback that saw the Rage play in a scoreless draw for most of the game and trail for much of the second period.
Coquitlam scored at 13:37 of the final frame, and it wasn’t until 17:23 of that Russouw sent the game into OT with the tying goal, assisted by Shae Taylor and Skylar Ray.
The Rage went undefeated in round-robin play, winning over Vancouver (5-4), Delta (4-3) and Burnaby (5-2) while playing Coquitlam/Moody to a 7-7 draw.
For all but one player, it was the first experience at the provincial tournament for the Rage, who were coming off a bronze-medal performance at their own Kelowna Sweetheart tournament in February.
A 5-3 triumph over Delta earned the Kelowna Ringette Association’s U16A Elite a Ringette BC provincial championship in Surrey recently.
The championship-game win avenged the Elite’s 4-2 loss to Delta in round-robin play and vaulted the KRA representatives to the Western Canadian championship tournament being held in Winnipeg March 22-25.
The Elite won three of four games in round-robin play defeating Prince George (5-4), Vancouver (8-2) and Vernon (7-4) along the way and earning a bye into the final against Delta.
Members of the Elite, coached by Todd MacMillan, Caitlin Pineau, Debby Wuthrich and Mike Wuthrich and managed by Corinne Dolman, are Kylie Brown, Sajan Kandola, Jessye Large, Athena MacLeod, Sara MacMillan, Kianna McRae, Brenna O’Flynn, Bianca Panagos, Brianna Panagos, Hailey Quiring, Chelsea Statham, Emily Stewart, Erin Tannar and Geneva Wuthrich.
The Kelowna Adrenaline capped a multiple medal-winning season with a silver at the Ringette BC provincial U16B championship tournament in Port Coquitlam on the weekend.
Winning four of six games, the Adrenaline came up short in a pair of matchups with the gold-medal winners from Houston to settle second place. Earlier in the season, the Adrenaline Thompson Okanagan Ringette League champions had earned gold in a tournament in Richmond, silver at the Sweetheart tournament in Kelowna and bronze in Vernon.
The Kelowna Ringette Association representatives, coming off a 3-1 record in round-robin play and an overtime victory over Shuswap in semifinal play, lost 7-2 to Houston in the gold-medal game.
Penalty trouble proved the Adrenaline’s downfall. They scored both their goals early in the game, but couldn’t rebound from subsequent penalty-box time.
Paige Manning, selected as the most valuable player of the tournament, scored once and assisted on a goal in a losing cause. Kaitlynn Penny added a goal for the Adrenline while Taya Large helped set up a Kelowna marker.
Manning, who had scored twice in regulation time, also tallied the game-winning goal at 12:04 of sudden-death overtime against Shuswap in the semifinal game on Sunday. Olivia Rindfleisch and Shay Dyck drew assists. Dyck and Rindfleisch each had a goal in regulation while Penny helped set up two goals and Tess Budzinski also assisted on a Kelowna marker.
The Adrenaline opened the five-team event by dropping a 6-1 decision to Houston in which Manning was the lone Kelowna scorer, with an assist from Budzinski.
A four-game winning streak began with the Adrenaline downing across-the-bridge rival Westside 3-1 after trailing by a goal with 7:06 left in the game.
Robyn Dunn (assisted by Rindfleisch) scored the equalizer and Manning notched the winner with 1:16 remaining on setups by Macelle White and Rindfleisch, the latter putting the insurance marker into an empty net.
Manning found the net five times as the Adrenaline followed up with a 6-2 victory over Delta in their third round-robin game. Rindfleisch contributed a goal and helpers came from Budzinski, Large and Dyck.
The final round-robin encounter saw the KRA reps down Shuswap 7-4, led again by Manning and her hat trick performance. Dick and White both scored once and assisted on a goal, while Hanna Jensen, Madison Lott, Penny and Budzinski assisted on goals.
Dropping a hard-fought 7-6 decision to Richmond in the Ringette BC championship game, the Kelowna Heat settled for the U19A provincial silver medal in Surrey recently.
The Heat won four of six games, defeating Port Coquitlam (6-3), Fraser Valley (8-1) and Delta (3-1) in round-robin play and edging Delta 5-4 in their semifinal matchup. The only other loss for the Heat was a 5-0 decision against Richmond in round-robin play.
Members of the Heat, coached by Dan Pilon and Lauri Horning and managed by Lynn Russo, are Makaila Bowes, Jordyn Cates, Grace Dixon, Kailey Fisher, Stephanie Hamilton, Kelly Horning, Maia Johnston, Taylor Pilon, Amanda Rizzo, Stephanie Russo, Samantha Weigel, Kiana Wong and Zack Wynn.
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