Force turns up ringette title

By Sean Rooney on March 27, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

With less than a dozen games together leading up to this past weekend, it’s fair to say Medicine Hat’s Force ringette team had tempered expectations.

A handful of the Open C-division players drove from as far away as Calgary to play with their hometown team, and without a regular goalie they got help from Martyn Clift and his dad Keon —who are allowed to play on the women’s roster as netminders only.

But there they were Sunday in Brooks, posing with the provincial championship banner after they beat the Rockyford Ringers 5-2 in the final.

“We’re a new team, this is the first year any of us played together,” said 22-year-old forward Kennedy Wilson. “We hadn’t gotten to play any of these teams really beforehand, nobody wants to travel to Medicine Hat.

“But we pulled together.”

Wilson and her teammates shocked the competition from the outset, leading the Ringers before dropping a 6-5 decision to the Ringers to start the round robin Friday.

“We didn’t have a great season,” said coach David Yip. “We probably played maybe eight games before provincials, only had two wins and a tie and the rest were losses.

“If we would have finished sixth place we would’ve been happy.”

The expectations changed pretty quickly. After they beat the Beaumont Rush 3-1 Saturday morning, Yip thought “oh, this is getting good.”

Even then it wasn’t as simple as just going out and winning games. Medicine Hat won the right to host the provincial tournament, but with a massive 3-on-3 hockey tournament taking every conceivable ice time on the weekend in the Gas City, the host team’s players had a 45-minute commute to Brooks instead. Yip believes more fans would’ve come to watch had they been able to play at home.

“We still had a good crowd but if we had it at home, we would’ve got more of the young kids out to watch high-calibre ringette.”

Force players also had to work the tournament, filling out game sheets or selling raffle tickets. Then, after tying Cochrane 2-2, they needed to play an extra overtime and a mini-game after the round robin ended because they were tied with other teams in the standings.

“I’m pretty sore,” Wilson admitted on Monday. “I was most nervous for the mini-game. On Sunday I just wanted to make it to the final.”

A 2-0 win over Rockyford Rush (with goals from Courtney Stock and Kelli Bowles, plus a shutout from Martyn Clift in net) got Medicine Hat to the gold medal game. They took charge early in their rematch with the Ringers, Bowles scoring two early and Paige Schreiber, Mikai Clift and Kelsey Logan adding the others as Force never trailed.

Yip noted Martyn Clift stopped 38 shots as his team was outshot 40-24.

For Wilson the title was her first since joining the open division team six years ago. She’d played on a provincial winner eight years ago which made this win all the more special.

“I was jumping, that’s for sure,” she said.

“We all got along really well. There was no drama; we just decided let’s just have fun. No one likes losing but no one also wants to come and be grumpy. That was the key there.”

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