NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat U14 Mustangs goaltender Jacqueline LeBlanc and Ally Martin celebrate the Mustangs' provincial bronze after beating the Lethbridge Rattlers 7-4 Sunday at the Kinplex.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mustangs put themselves among the province’s top ringette talent over the weekend.
The Medicine Hat Ringette Association had two local teams pick up medals across the four division of provincials action hosted in the Gas City, with U14, U16, Open B and Open C play on display.
With 36 visiting teams and more than 600 athletes visiting for the largest provincials held in one city, Medicine Hat defended home ice, taking home a silver medal at the Open B level and a bronze in U14.
“This weekend lived up to and exceeded (expectations),” U14 head coach and provincials committee co-chair Loralee Eastland said. “We’ve heard nothing but positive talk of the games, the volunteers that were stepping up, the banquet, the fact that it was four divisions, I certainly haven’t heard anything negative.
“It’s been a huge success.”
It’s the first time Ringette Alberta has had four divisions hosted in one city, an opportunity the Medicine Hat association ran with, hosting a banquet on the opening Friday night for the U14 and U16 teams to kick off the weekend. While she doesn’t know when Medicine Hat will get the next chance to host provincials, Eastland says they proved themselves throughout the weekend.
“We’re a centre that can do it, we can host a large number and put on a really great, almost kind of intimate, personal tournament,” Eastland said. “You’re not running all over the place, we’re all in the same rinks, you know, between the three rinks. I think Ringette Alberta may look to us in the future and ask if we can do a certain number of divisions again.”
Her U14 Mustangs finished the round robin 2-1, winning their crossover game Saturday 5-3 over EDM-U14B-1. Ally Martin and Breanna Lanuk each had two goals with an assist, Kassidy Etienne had a goal and an assist in the win.
They lost 5-4 in an overtime heartbreaker in the semifinals Sunday morning against Calgary Bow View. Lanuk scored twice, Etienne had a goal and an assist and Martin had a goal.
They were able to respond later in the morning, beating the Lethbridge Rattlers 7-4, capturing provincials bronze. Lacey Gibney scored two goals with two assists, Lanuk had a hat trick and Martin had two goals.
Jacqueline LeBlanc was in net for the weekend for the U14 Mustangs.
“I wasn’t expecting this, with 12 girls on our teams it’s insane,” Mustang Brea Butterfield said. “The moments in this (finals) game were absolutely crazy, especially because we hadn’t beat Lethbridge this year at all. I love this team, I love this sport and I highly encourage people to try it.”
It was a week for the U14 Mustangs that displayed the resiliency Eastland says has flourished throughout the season.
“We weren’t good all year, we were close to the bottom of the league, but these little turkeys, they just bought into the system and they’re only U14 but they believed in me and each other and the coaching staff, and we just continued to climb all year,” Eastland said. “I told them in September, we don’t play for wins throughout the year, we play to get to March. And although I tell them you can play in provincials and do well, I’m not even sure I believed it, but they sure believed it.”
The Medicine Hat Open B Smash finished their round robin with a 2-1 record before beating the St. Albert Edge 4-1 Sunday morning to punch their finals ticket.
Kailyn B scored two goals with an assist in that win, Paige S added a goal and an assist and Mahala S had a solo goal.
They lost 6-5 to the CORA Tigers in the finals, picking up silver. Lindsay H scored twice, Nicona L, Paige S and Mahala S each had a goal and an assist. Tyler L was in net.
The U16 Mustangs finished their round robin play with a 2-1 record. They skated to a 6-6 tie with Calgary Bow View on Saturday in the crossover game, holding them out of semifinals action.
Reese Tabor had two goals with two assists in the draw, Margot Kerr had two goals as well. Jayna Allchurch and Leighton Wright each had a goal and an assist, Emma Pinnell was in net.
The Open C Force went 1-2 in the round robin, beating the NAW Brewskis 6-4 on Saturday before falling 11-10 to the LED-Jaguars. They lost in a mini game to the Brewskis to miss out on the semifinals.
