The Notre Dame Hounds played the game of their lives in memory of Mandi Schwartz in winning the Esso Cup.
"We did it for her. She is always in our minds," said captain Jennifer More of the Notre Dame grad and Yale Bulldogs forward who lost her battle with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) on April 3 at age 23. "Mandi was a real inspirational person throughout our team. In our dressing room we had our own stall for her and every time we went on to the ice we looked at her. We just really wanted to do this for her."
The Hounds wore heart-shaped patches on their jerseys in remembrance of Schwartz, who attended Canadian women's team camps and played high school hockey at Notre Dame before heading to Yale.
The resident of Wilcox, Sask. was diagnosed with AML, an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow, in December of 2008 during her junior year at Yale. Twenty-five months later she was informed any further treatment would be futile.
Her story raised awareness of stem cell transplants that she desperately needed and the Yale and North American hockey communities launched a massive online campaign to find both bone marrow matches and umbilical cord blood from women about to give birth.
More than 1,1000 people attended her funeral in Wilcox.
"She has been an inspiration," said Janice Rumpel, head coach of the gold-medal winning Hounds at the third annual national female midget hockey championship. "In between periods I said, 'Guys that need to skate, touch Mandi's skates. You'll go a little faster. Guys that need to pass the puck a little bit better, touch the stick, and the guys that need a little more heart, touch the jersey.'"
Inspired effort
With the spirit of Schwartz flowing throughout the line-up in Saturday's final, the Hounds rolled past the Edmonton Thunder 5-2 in front of an announced crowd of 1,100 at Performance Arena.
"We controlled the play a little better than they did. We probably had a little more traffic in their own end, a little more puck movement and had a little more finish than they did," Rumpel said. "They pushed us hard though. It was a great game."
In the opening day of the six-team tournament the Thunder tamed the Hounds 3-2 in a shootout.
"We were a little slow and nervous too and we just didn't play our game," More said. "After that we stepped it up a lot throughout the week."
The Hounds attacked the Thunder in waves in both games by shot counts of 37-22 in the opener (14-1 in period one) and 30-22 in the final (12-5 in period one).
"We put a lot of pucks on net the first game but didn't really create. There was nobody going to the net or not going hard enough," Rumpel said. "We were a little hungrier this game. We knew we had to do some back-door, side-door action on this goalie [Morgan Glover] and that's how we ended up putting the puck in the net."
Glover was named the tournament MVP and most outstanding goalie after the round robin.
"It's a big honour but I would trade that in to win the big thing any time," said Glover, who finished nationals with a 5-1 record, one shutout (15 saves in the 1-0 win over the host St. Albert Slash) and a 1.61 GAA for the first-place Thunder in the round robin. "We beat Notre Dame at the start and went on to have a great tournament, but today they just played a great game."
A sense of urgency surrounded the rematch, the seventh game in seven days for both teams. In the end it was the Hounds who tasted gold.
"It's so tiring but we prepared for it and we did it," More said. "We played our game, played our systems and skated hard."
The first stoppage in play in the final was a body-checking penalty to Thunder defenceman Stephanie Zvonkovic at 4:08. The third shot on the power play was Daniella Matteucci's point blast that More redirected past Glover to open the scoring.
The Thunder replied at 12:32 on the power play when captain Heather Kashman wired the puck from the right faceoff circle into the top corner on the glove side of goalie Samantha Langford for her team-leading fifth goal at nationals.
"We were a little nervous in the first period but we definitely picked up our game," said Kashman, the MVP in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League this season.
In the second stanza, the score remained intact despite quality chances by Kashman and the Hounds' Olivia Howe, the tournament's top scorer and recipient of the most outstanding forward award.
With 3:35 left in the period, after the Hounds rushed the puck into the attacking zone, Courtney Jacklin accepted a pass in the slot and flipped a sneaky shot past Glover. Shots were 22-9 Hounds after the go-ahead marker.
It remained a one-goal game because of the superb netminding of Langford (stoned Jessica Sekulic midway through the third) and Glover (series of saves during a three-minute segment after Sekulic was robbed).
Insurance markers
The tide turned with 5:54 left in regulation time as More scored off a faceoff in the Thunder end. Her 15 points in seven games ranked third in tournament scoring.
Twenty-nine seconds later, Alison Campbell of the Thunder was penalized for elbowing in the Notre Dame end. On the power play Alyssa Threadkell wasted no time in making it 4-1.
"That was the turning point," said More, the Hounds' player of the game. "We just kept going, getting pucks deep and we were on our way."
With time ticking down on the Thunder, Sekulic poked in a rebound with 71 seconds to play.
With the Hounds on the penalty kill, Howe sealed the deal into an empty net with her tournament-leading ninth goal with 21 seconds to go.
"They're a great team that we faced and the bounces just didn't go our way," said Kashman, 17, the Thunder's player of the game. "We had some girls that were sick and some girls that weren't completely 100 per cent but we gave it our complete best effort. There is not much more we could've done.
"All of us believed in ourselves. Our team motto was 'lean on me,' and we definitely did exactly that right to the end."
Strong showing
The silver medal was the highest finish by the Thunder at nationals after placing fourth at the inaugural 2009 event and last year's bronze medal win.
"It's not the best feeling right now but we've gone farther than any Edmonton team has gone and we improved every time we've been here. Some of us have been here three times so it's a big accomplishment," said Glover, 17.
The Grade 12 O'Leary High School student was among five players in their third season with the Thunder, 6-1 at nationals after going 27-0-5 in the regular season and 10-3 in league and Pacific region playoffs combined.
"We were the complete underdogs right off the start. No one would have expected us to even make it to nationals, let alone make it to the final round," said Kashman, a Grade 12 O'Leary student and third-year Thunder centre. "Definitely this is our most memorable season yet. A lot of girls in that dressing room know that we couldn't have done anything more than what we did."
Only two losses
At 6-1 the Hounds finished one spot higher than last year, when the West regional champions lost the final to the Thunder Bay (Ont.) Queens 4-3 in Regina.
"There was relief when it was over, just because you know what it's like on the other side," said Rumpel of her team that lost only two games all season. "We were pretty demanding all year and pushed them pretty hard, so when you get the results it's pretty good. You feel good for the team.
"We had 11 returning and at the start of the year we talked about what we did wrong last year and if we get the chance to get here again, what are we going to do different and the biggest difference was sticking to our game plan. Last year we veered off it and maybe that's what cost us. This year they stuck to the game plan a little better."
More, 17, and the rest of the Hounds were over the moon with their accomplishment.
"Winning silver was kind of a bad moment last year and winning gold this year is so much better and amazing," said the resident of Deloraine, Man., who centred the most explosive line combination at nationals, flanked by Howe (19 points) and Taylor Woods (18 points).
ICE CHIPS: In the semifinals the Hounds defeated the Toronto Aeros 5-1 and the Thunder downed the Kodiacs du Lac St-Louis 4-1. The Ontario reps shut out the Quebec champs 4-0 in the bronze playoff.
Legal product and recently retired Edmonton Oilers' anthem singer Paul Lorieau belted out the Canadian national anthem at Saturday's final.
The officiating crew featured referee Lacey Senuk and linesman Arron Best from the St. Albert Referees Association and linesman Kayla Keeping from Kamloops.
