Ice end season on a high

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

After finishing with a less than desirable result at the U12A ringette provincials, the Strathmore Ice Stealers ended the season with a dramatic win.
After the Ringette Calgary League regular season wrapped up, the four non-Calgarian teams needed a title to play for, while the seven city-based programs squared off in their own year-end tournament.
The Big Country Zone 2 tournament featured Strathmore, Cochrane, Indus and Airdrie.
The Stealers were the No. 1 seed in the group, as they finished the RCL in sixth with a 6-7-3 record. They took on the Cochrane Rockies (0-16-0) in the opening round and blasted them 6-0 back on March 10.
A break in the Zone tournament needed to take place to allow the Ice Stealers to go off and compete at provincials.
Upon returning, the Zone final was set between the Stealers and the Airdrie Sting (4-10-2).
The banner-clinching game saw two ties and three lead changes, as the Stealers battled back from a 3-2 deficit in the second half to skate to a 4-3 victory March 23 at the Strathmore Family Centre.
“We haven’t lost to Airdrie all year, they are a good team, but our girls came out motivated and determined to win that banner,” said Stealers Head Coach Wes Clark. “It was great to see them achieve that in the last game of the season.”
The Strathmore Minor Ringette Association’s oldest team, the U19B Ice were in action last weekend for their provincial tournament in Calgary.
After getting off to a great start in the opener with a 6-3 doubling of the Lethbridge Wild March 23 at Father David Bauer Arena in Calgary, the Ice sputtered down the stretch, losing their next three matches.
“We ran into a couple northern teams that we have never seen before,” said Ice Head Coach Chad Gillies. “That’s the thing with these tournaments, you go in with a game plan and make adjustments along the way. We changed things up defensively when things weren’t going our way, but it wasn’t enough to come all the way back in the end.”
The Ice closed out the round robin slate with a 7-2 loss to the Fort McMurray Fusion and a narrow 5-4 loss to the Spruce Grove Slash early on March 24.
In the crossover, the Ice ran into the South Calgary Surge and was doubled up 8-4, sending them into the seventh-place game March 25.
“It made a big difference, playing teams that you have seen before,” said Gillies. “We knew the Bow View Nova pretty well having played them a couple times, so we were able to game plan against them and have some success.”
The Ice wrapped up the weekend in style with a 3-1 over their Calgary rivals. It was the perfect way to send off their five graduating players.
Kiersten Gron, Holland Kelly, Jemma Warrack, Becky Driver and Kennedy Elder came along in the Strathmore Minor Ringette Association and have now played their last games together before they head their separate ways into post-secondary institutions.