Alberta struck gold in dramatic fashion at the Canadian Ringette Championships.
In the U16 junior AA final, Kennedie Wolosyn of St. Albert assisted on the overtime thriller by Kelsey Hupka of Fort Saskatchewan, as zone 5 Pace rallied to edge Quebec 8-7 in Saturday's barnburner at Saskatoon.
"It's so exciting knowing you're the best team in Canada," said Wolosyn, a tournament first team all-star forward. "Not only did we win a good game, we won it in overtime too."
Last year zone 5 Snipe lost the final to Ontario 4-1 after skating past Quebec in the semifinal 5-4 on Wolosyn's OT marker and third of the game.
"We came back to win it this year. We really wanted to be the best. It was important for us to have that name and to do it the way we did was amazing," said Wolosyn, one of seven returning juniors from the 2009 nationals on the Alberta roster.
The hat-trick goal by Calgary pick-up Lindsey Geddes with 2:31 remaining in regulation time forced the extra period.
"It was 7-6 when I turned to my assistant coach [Nancy Bechard] and said, 'We can't lose again. Not this year. It's not happening again,' You just know what that feeling of losing was like and how bad it hurt," said co-captain Alyssa Cancian of St. Albert. "About 30 seconds after I told my assistant coach that, Lindsey scored and then all of a sudden we're in overtime. It was crazy. It was kind of scary too, knowing we hadn't won it yet and they really wanted it too."
With a gold medal hanging in the balance, and one second left on the shot clock, Hupka wired the ring into the back of the net at 1:34 of sudden death.
"I was on the left side of the post and I was just calling for the ring and she looked over and kind of faked the pass to me so their whole triangle crowded over to me so it left her a wide open net and wide open shot and she got it top corner," Wolosyn said. "The mesh of the net just wiggled when it went in. At first I was kind of stunned. It didn't feel like we had won and then it finally hit me. I jumped up and I was the first one to give her a hug. We fell to the ice and that's when the whole doggie pile started and everybody jumped on us."
Hupka's heroics opened a floodgate of emotions for the national champions.
"I'm pretty sure our team and our fans had a good cry for about 30 minutes. We cried more than the second place team did. We were just so happy," Cancian said
Undefeated
The Pace ended the round-robin draw undefeated at 8-0 with Friday's 7-4 win over Quebec. Shots were 27-21 for the winners as they outscored Quebec 4-2 in the last period. Hupka tallied once and added three assists. Wolosyn potted a pair and singles were sniped by Kaitlin Hillier of Beaumont, Danielle Bechard of Spruce Grove, Jordan Hodge of St. Albert and Calgary pickup Paola Romeo. Bailey Deschene of Spruce Grove and Stacey Bjornsson of Sherwood Park shared net duties.
"Going into the final we had a lot of confidence because we did quite well against them," said Wolosyn, who opened the scoring 21 seconds into the rematch with Quebec. "After we got the lead some of us started to get overconfident. It really hit us when they got two goals [to lead 2-1 with 6:53 left in the first period]; that's when we had to start digging in and play as hard as we could. They wanted it just as much as we did but we had more skill. I guess we were just the harder team to beat."
Geddes (PP) and Calgary pickup Nicole Ronsky also scored in the opening 20 minutes. Quebec evened the score at 3-3 with 18 seconds left in the period.
The seesaw affair continued in the last frame.
"They really showed up that day and gave us a run for our money," said Cancian, a returning defenceman who tied it at 4-4 at 6:29 of the last period.
Wolosyn's 11th goal of the tournament knotted it at 6-6 with 5:32 to play. The Grade 10 Paul Kane High School student also collected three assists. In eight games she recorded 18 points.
"I guess I had the hot stick," Wolosyn said. "I just wanted to go out there and play as hard as I could."
Hupka, the second team all-star centre and Pace co-captain, added three assists in the final in addition to her golden goal. The team's top scorer at nationals racked up 22 points in eight games.
The line of Hupka, Wolosyn and Geddes (7-5-12 in eight games) was responsible for six of the eight goals against Quebec.
In net was first team all-star Karen Lefsrud of Calgary (three goals against on 15 shots in 20 MP) and Bjornsson (four goals against on 13 shots in 21:34 MP).
Individual achievement game awards were presented to Geddes and Maude Charbonneau of Quebec, who led all scorers with four goals.
Romeo also received the defensive game star award.
In the round robin Ontario finished 7-1 and Quebec was 6-2. Quebec advanced to the final with a 4-3 decision over the defending champs.
"A lot of us wanted to play Ontario in the final. After last year we really wanted to beat them," Cancian said.
Grudge match
Revenge was sweet for the Pace when they overpowered Ontario 5-1 Thursday in the round robin.
"After we played Ontario we realized we had a really good shot of going undefeated and winning the national title," Cancian said.
Shots were 19 apiece as Pace led 4-1 after the first period. Hupka, Sasha Stadnyk of St. Albert, Hodge, Wolosyn and Robyn Gillespie of Sherwood Park scored. Lefsrud was in net.
"That was the strongest we've ever played together as a team," said Wolosyn, 16.
Going into nationals the Pace were 21-5-2 as zone 5 repeated as Ringette Alberta champions. Last year as the Snipe, zone 5 lost only two games, including the gold-medal tilt in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Two years ago, zone 5 Valta didn't lose a game as the host junior AA team at nationals in St. Albert.
"It was two completely different tournaments between this year and last year," Cancian said. "We really pulled it together this year. It was the best I've ever seen us play. The competition couldn't handle us as much, whereas last year the competition was just as equal but we didn't play to our best."
The Pace was the top team defensively at nationals with only 14 goals against and the least penalized team with 62 minutes.
"It definitely helped out that some of us played at nationals last year. We knew how the week would pan out. We knew what to do with our free time, when we should rest up, how strong the teams are going to be and not to underestimate some of the teams," said Cancian, 15, a Grade 10 Paul Kane student.
