Bantam girls earn silver medal

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

The Strathmore Storm earned a silver medal at the 2019 Bantam Female B Provincial Championship on March 24 in Okotoks.
They finished the round robin portion of the tournament by going 3-0-1 before earning a berth in the semifinals en route to the gold medal game.
“I couldn’t have been happier with them or more proud of them,” said head coach Rick Puttick. “Everybody played, they put everything they had on the ice … and they just let it all out and see what happens, and that’s what sports should be about. Two good teams, two good competitors going as hard as they can and one’s going to win and one’s not, but still two winners at the end.”
The Storm opened the tournament with a 4-4 draw versus the Leduc Roughnecks on March 21, before defeating the Okotoks Oilers Green 4-0 the following day. The Storm closed out the round robin with a 3-2 win over the St. Albert Comets and an 11-1 thumping over the Edmonton Hawks on March 23.
The Storm earned a 6-2 victory over the Calgary Jr. Inferno Heat in the semifinal on March 24, before falling 9-5 in the championship final later that afternoon, earning them a silver medal.
“Our girls have been pretty good all year. It’s been a growing process; we have a diversity of talent but the girls all worked hard,” said Puttick. “We won our league championship so we’re hardly underdogs, but at the provincial level for the most part you’re playing all new clubs so everybody else is probably a champion in their division as well. We had our ups and downs during the week, games that we probably should have won a little more handily based on past experience and what was on the ice we struggled with, but we managed to get the win at the end (of the round robin) so that’s what counted.”
According to Puttick, the team put on quite the show during provincials and it bodes well for the growth of female hockey.
“If we keep allowing the girls to play in serious competition, with good coaching and good set-up, girls’ games are going to go places,” said Puttick. “We are actually trying to encourage … we have a lot of girls who play boys’ hockey and one of the reasons for that is they don’t think that the girls’ hockey – the ‘they’ being in most cases the parents – that girls’ hockey is not really going to give them that development opportunity. But results like the midget team had and then us following them up is really going to tip that balance a little bit and let them know that the girls’ hockey is a good brand of hockey and that the girls can grow and develop quite readily in it. If we get more of the girls playing girl’s hockey, it’s just going to make things all that much better.”