Raiders crowned provincial champs

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

For the first time in franchise history, the Rocky Mountain Raiders triple-A female midget team claimed the provincial championship.
Consisting of local players Paige Russell, Hailey McCallum, Erin Fargey, Libby Wheeler and Emma Borbandy, the Raiders defeated the Calgary Fire 2-1 in the final in Grande Prairie on March 27.
The girls played six games in a four-day span and wound up with a 5-1 record, en route to the winning championship.
Wheeler said the only loss came against the Fire and only fuelled them to want to play them in the finals; the loss was a point in the event that she felt brought the team together.
“I don’t think anyone was happy to lose to them in the first place,” said Wheeler. “It was stressful going out there, like 6-on-5 for last two minutes to get that over with and have that buzzer go was unbelievable.”
This is Russell’s last season of Raider hockey and to go out and prove they were champions was a highlight for her.
“We can still keep our title as first in the league,” said Russell. “I’ve won gold before but this time it’s a little more special because our team is a lot closer and the fact we get to have a chance at nationals is pretty unreal.”
Additionally, what helped the team stay consistent at provincials was that they were able to get a practice in on the way up to get them accustomed to the pace of the tournament while making sure they’d be at their best.
When Fargey got her chance to play in between the pipes, she took the opportunity and made sure when she was the last line of defense that that she kept the puck in front of her.
However, if she wasn’t playing, her mindset was always to stay positive and encourage her teammates on the bench.
The feeling of being a champion hadn’t quite sunk in for McCallum yet but she described it as an honour to be a part of the first Raiders championship team.
“Every line was just rolling,” said McCallum. “That was the best part – that all four of our lines were unstoppable. Last year you could definitely see the separation with team and this year it’s all one family.”
As for Borbandy, she’s been to two championship series before at the bantam level, and she said what had helped them to the win was the encouragement they gave one another.
“We never gave up even if we were down a goal,” said Borbandy.
The Raiders will now go to regionals to face the Northern Capitals, the team they lost to in the Mac’s final. The series will take place from April 1-3 in Prince George, B.C.
Meanwhile, the bantam triple-A female Raiders, who carry locals Natalie Funk and Kaia Borbandy on their roster, made it to the gold medal game but lost to the Edmonton Lightning 3-2 for the second consecutive year in overtime in St. Albert on March. 27.
“Both of them were fantastic,” said head coach Dan Tall, in referring to the locals. “Kaia was instrumental in our first game against Edmonton in the round robin. She was used mostly in a shutdown role and she played against some of the best players.
“Natalie was great all tournament as well and actually scored the goal to get us back on the road to getting to overtime against Edmonton in the final. We were down 2-0 and she scored with 10 minutes left to get us back in the game.”
Tall said it’s tough to go through losses like this one, but the improvements made throughout the course of the season is only going to pay dividends for the future.