U14AA westerns
Two losses in Saturday’s playoff round for the U14AA St. Albert Mission resulted in a fourth-place finish at the Western Canadian Ringette Championships.
As Team Alberta 2 in the 10-team tournament at St. Albert, the Mission suffered setbacks of 8-2 to Zone 2 Blaze as Team Alberta in the semifinal and 8-2 to the Eastman Flames as Team Manitoba in the bronze-medal game.
In pool A, the Mission shaded Manitoba 3-2 to finish the round robin tied with Eastman and Spruce Grove as Team Alberta 4 at 3-1.
At westerns, a team can’t lose an opportunity at a medal based on tiebreakers so a goal differential tie-breaker determined first place, which ended up to be Manitoba (plus-seven), so the Mission (plus-five) and Spruce Grove (plus-one) played a 10-minute mini-game. It was 1-1 after regulation time and in overtime Brielle Lajoie scored the winner as the Mission out-possessioned and outshot the same team that beat them 6-5 in pool play.
The semifinal was a rematch of the March 17 provincial final in Sherwood Park as the Mission let a 3-1 lead at the break slip away in the 5-3 loss.
At westerns, the Mission led 4-3 at the half before Zone 2 took control of the match.
The Mission’s season record against Zone 2 was 1-7.
Zone 2 went on to beat Calgary Red as Team Alberta 3 in the gold-medal game 7-3.
Visit www.2019wcrc.com for the U14AA division web page.
In the bronze playoff, the Mission had a tough time shaking off the loss to Zone 2 and Amanda Vann, the Manitoba netminder and U14AA tournament all-star, also played a big role in the outcome.
In early February, the Mission doubled Eastman 6-3 at the 44th annual Gloucester Cumberland Invitational.
The U14AA all-star team included Jazmyn Fevin of the Mission for the second year in a row at westerns.
Fevin was among six returnees on this year’s roster from the 41-9-4 team that was awarded silver at the 2018 westerns in Saskatoon.
Fevin also fired the OT winner in the semifinal of the 33rd annual Esso Golden Ring in Calgary for the 3-2 decision against Zone 2.
The Mission are the first AA team in the St. Albert Ringette Association to finish first at the Golden Ring by defeating Calgary White 5-4 in the final.
The Mission’s record entering westerns was 32-14-3.
U16A westerns
Mackenzie Waples of the St. Albert Saints was named to the U16A tournament all-star team at the Western Canadian Ringette Championships.
The Saints finished fourth at westerns in St. Albert after Saturday’s 8-1 win over Team Saskatchewan in the placement game.
The Saints and Calgary Northwest Nova as Team Alberta shared third place at 2-2 in the five-team division and the 4-2 loss in the mini-game prevented the U16A hosts from playing in the semifinal.
In the round robin, the Saints doubled Calgary 6-3 and downed Saskatchewan 7-3.
Calgary went on to defeat Team British Columbia 4-3 in the semifinal and Team Manitoba 5-1 in the gold-medal game.
Visit www.2019wcrc.com for the U16A division web page.
U19A westerns
St. Albert Select netminder Sidney Ford received U19A tournament all-star honours at the Western Canadian Ringette Championships.
As the host team, Select won the fourth/fifth placement game 4-3 against Team Saskatchewan on Saturday in St. Albert.
The Selects placed fourth at 1-3 in the five-team round robin.
The Selects’ record included the 6-3 win against Saskatchewan and 2-1 loss to South Calgary Blaze as Team Alberta.
The semifinal was 5-3 for Team British Columbia over Calgary and the winner of the gold-medal game was Team Manitoba 11-5 against B.C.
Visit www.2019wcrc.com for the U19A division web page.
18-plus A westerns
The St. Albert Crew finished third in the 18-plus A division following Saturday’s 7-3 semifinal loss to Team Manitoba at the Western Canadian Ringette Championships.
The Crew also dropped a 9-2 decision to Manitoba in the five-team round robin.
The host team for westerns in St. Albert placed third in pool play at 2-2 with wins of 7-0 against Team British Columbia and 4-3 against Team Saskatchewan. One of the losses was 8-1 to Edmonton Last Call as Team Alberta.
The goal-medal game was 8-3 for the undefeated Alberta reps against Manitoba.
Visit www.2019wcrc.com for the 18-plus A division web page.
