NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Breanna Lanuk of the Medicine Hat U16 Mustangs loads up for a shot for one of her four goals in the U16 finals of the Ed Horvath Invitational tournament on Sunday at the Moose Rec Centre. The U16 Mustangs lost 7-6 in the final to the Bow Valley Rapids on a last-second goal.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mustangs ensured some hardware stayed in the city from the Ed Horvath tournament.
Two Mustangs teams, U14 and U16, finished second at the locally held Invitational ringette tournament. The Open B Smash captured a second straight gold in the Open division.
Both silver medals came in movie-like finals. The U14 Mustangs lost 6-5 in overtime to the Regina Blazers, and the U16 team lost 7-6 to the Bow View Rapids on a last-second goal.
In the U16 final, the Mustangs led 6-5 through three quarters before Bow View tied the game up with 3:09 left in the game. The Rapids took the gold with a buzzer-beating goal.
“The girls are obviously upset when it’s that close and it was so back and forth, such a long weekend with this being our sixth game with only eight skaters,” head coach Loralee Eastland said. “We had a couple of minor injuries on the bench, too, and that’s hard to play through. Bow View did their homework on us and it just literally didn’t bounce our way in the last second of the game.”
Breanna Lanuk had four goals and six points in the final. Lacey Gibney had a goal and two assists, Onyka Funk had a goal and Madison Helgeson had two assists.
The U16 Mustangs entered the final with a 5-0 record, opening the tournament with a 7-4 win Friday morning over the same Rapids. They beat Lethbridge 7-1 later that day before beating Regina 9-7 Saturday morning. They faced the same Regina team later in the day, winning 7-2 before beating Lethbridge 10-1 Sunday morning to punch their finals ticket.
It was a long weekend for the shorthanded team of eight skaters and two goalies, a test of conditioning Eastland says is a preview of what they’ll have to endure if they want to capture provincials gold.
“The girls know we need to work on our conditioning some more, we’ve taken a lot of lessons already and have some practices already planned for the upcoming week as the things we need to work on,’ Eastland said. “But come tomorrow, they’re going to be really proud of themselves as to what they did.”
Three U16 Mustangs led the division in tournament scoring, with Lanuk at the top finishing with 17 goals and 24 points in the six games. Gibney had nine goals and 19 points in six contests and Tia Van Maarion had seven goals and 15 points in five games.
In the U14 finals, Medicine Hat and Regina each scored five times in the first half and were scoreless in the second half, setting up the overtime where Regina scored with 1:36 left.
Brinley Cross had two goals and three points, Kassidy Etienne had two goals. Arika McDowall added a solo tally.
They entered the tournament winless and left the weekend on a path for success for the rest of the season, head coach Jake Forsyth says.
“The girls were trending upwards and we had high hopes for the weekend and it followed through,” Forsyth said.
“Something’s clicking with the girls for sure. They’ve got the taste of success and it’s given them some confidence.”
They opened the weekend with a pair of wins, beating Regina 1 7-4 Friday before topping Calgary NW 1 7-6. They lost 5-2 Saturday morning to the Blazers, using to them 4-3 later in the day. A 4-3 win Sunday morning over Calgary NW1 put them in the finals.
Etienne came second in U14 scoring with 16 goals and 17 points in six games.
“It couldn’t have worked out any better, every game was within two goals and they all could have gone either way, especially the final in overtime,” Forsyth said. “We’re just so proud of how hard the girls worked all weekend.”
Medicine Hat’s Open B Smash finished the weekend with a 4-0 record, beating the Lethbridge Rattlers 5-2 on Sunday for the gold. The Open C Force finished the weekend 1-2.
The U19 Mustangs lost in semifinals action on Sunday, falling 5-3 to Regina, who lost 5-1 in the finals to Buffalo Plains. The U19 Mustangs finished with a 3-2 record on the weekend, led in scoring by Ryleigh Jackiw, who had nine goals and 12 points.
The U12A Mustangs were 0-4 on the weekend, finishing the weekend with a 6-4 loss to Calgary NW1. Charlie Lowe led them in scoring with three goals and seven points in four games.
The U12B Mustangs went 0-4 in the tournament, dropping their final game Saturday against Bow View 2 7-1. Jayla-Ray Klaudt scored eight goals in the four games.
The U10 Step 3 Mustangs finished 0-4 on the weekend, losing 4-2 Saturday afternoon to Airdrie. Everley Cross had four goals and five points in their four games.
“The Ed Horvath is still one of the best tournaments, I say it every year,” Eastland said. It’s well run, it’s well organized, the executive and the tournament committee are fantastic. The facilities are great, they’re nice and close and we can watch and support our home teams play.
“It’s a really great time of the season, right smack dab in the middle of the season, as we get moving forward into session two.”
