Strathmore Ice improve provincial ranking

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

A pair of Strathmore ringette teams enhanced their provincial ranking last weekend, competing in their respected year-end tourneys in Sherwood Park.
The U12A Ice entered their provincial tournament with the lowest rank of the 12 teams, but improved to 10th after five games and could have seen their ranking improve if a couple close games went their way.
“We battled a lot of teams right down to the end regardless of the score. We had a smaller team, but they competed hard and left it all on the ice,” said Ice Head Coach Wes Clark.
The Ice opened the weekend by battling the Northwest Calgary Edge 0-0 until deep into the second and final period. The Edge prevailed, scoring three goals down the stretch to blank the Ice.
Up next, the Ice crushed the Bow View Blitz 5-0 to boost them into second in the pool.
A 7-1 loss to the Red Deer Rush in the final round robin game sent the Ice into the dreaded tiebreaker. The result saw them draw the South Calgary Thunder in the B semifinal. The Ice trailed 3-0 and battled back to tie it at four. In the end, they couldn’t keep up with the Calgary squad and fell 6-5.
“We only have 10 skaters on our team, including our goalie,” said Clark. “We were going up against teams with 12 skaters and a goalie. At that point, we had played four games in 36 hours and they were a little burnt out.”
The semifinal loss dropped them into the 9th place game, where they took on the St. Albert Storm and lost 7-2.
“It was a pretty good year for our team,” said Clark. “We won silver in Beaumont, gold in Lacombe, bronze at the Silver Ring tourney in Edmonton and took silver in our home tournament. The girls have a lot to be proud of.”
The Ice wrap up their season March 23 when they host Airdrie at the Strathmore Family Centre for the zone banner.

Battle to the end
The U14B Ice were also in Sherwood Park last weekend, and while they improved their ranking, they left desiring a better fate.
“It was a great weekend and the girls played awesome, but when you look at the top four teams after the weekend, we beat all but one of them at some point this season,” said Ice Manager Charla Flett. “It’s nice to that we could play with any team in the province.”
The Ice were 1-2 after a round robin slate that saw them lose a nail-biter to the Hussar Fireworks 6-5. They bounced back with an 8-6 victory over Lethbridge, only to drop their final qualification game 7-3 to the eventual provincial champions Lacombe Edge.
The Ice saw the most exciting game of the weekend take place against the Medicine Hat Rouge in the crossover playoff game.
Trailing 3-0, the Ice clawed back into it and lead 5-3, only to see the Rouge tie the game and force overtime with four seconds remaining in regulation.
“We had played that Medicine Hat team three times this year and lost all three by a substantial margin,” said Ice Head Coach Ben Sader. “We knew they were the team to beat all year, so to come back and knock them off was pretty special and one of the highlights of our season.”
The Ice didn’t wait around to end it in overtime. After being awarded the ring on a coin toss, the Ice sent Reghan Tait dashing into the Rouge zone, as she ripped a shot top corner for the win.
The dramatic win catapulted the Ice into the 7th place game, where they were matched up with the Spruce Grove Storm. The Ice put a cap on the weekend with a solid 3-2 win, to place seventh out of 30 teams in the province.
“The girls played great all year long,” said Sader. “All year, they were willing to work hard the entire game, be a hard team to play against and checked all three zones really well. It was a total defensive effort all year by the girls and it was great to see it pay off.”