NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Hannah Thompson of the Medicine Hat U19 Chicken Hawks makes a cross crease pass in the first half of the Hawks 10-2 win against the Regina Renegades on Friday to open up their Ed Horvath tournament.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat U19 Chicken Hawks opened up their Ed Horvath tournament in a big way.
The Chicken Hawks beat the Regina Renegades 10-2 Friday morning at the Moose Rec. Centre. Head coach John Karamanos said it’s a good start as they look to continue their momentum from the regular season and the first game toward a spot in the finals.
“The girls are confident and they’re playing strong,” Karamanos said. “I’m teaching them lots, they’re learning lots and they’re practising and doing what we’re teaching them. It’s really nice and they’re building towards their end goal of wanting to win provincials.”
As much as they flexed the offensive muscles Friday morning, Karamanos says defence is the name of the game for the Chicken Hawks.
“Defence wins championships, that’s the goal of that,” Karamanos said. “Whatever sport it is if you have a solid defence, you can shut them down. This game (against Regina) it was 54 shots to 17 shots. Just shows they only have 17 shots but our defence kept them out the whole time.”
He called a timeout after Regina’s second goal to change the team’s defensive approach to player-on-player. Karamanos says it make’s his job easy how willing the team is with making adjustments mid game.
“It’s a really large group of 22 kids, we have to sit five every game, but it’s really good, they listen great and they’re really enthusiastic,” Karamanos said. They’ve really bonded well as a team, too, they’re in it for each other, they’re playing for each other. That’s the goal.”
The Chicken Hawks faced the Airdrie Sting later Friday night and finish off their round robin Saturday against the Buffalo Plains Blitz, 1:15 p.m. at the Kinplex.
“We’re going to play strong, we’re going to play smart, the girls want to be effective,” Karamnos said. “We’re going for one goal, so we want to keep getting better.”
It’s not his first year coaching in the Ed Horvath tournament but Karamanos says he loves it each and every time.
“The players love it because everyone in their lives, family and friends can come and just see what they do,” Karamanos said. “It’s really good for the community, there’s lots of ringette going on in town.”
The Ed Horvath tournament wraps up midday Sunday with the gold and bronze medal games at the Kinplex – gold games on Kin. 1 and bronze on Kin. 2. The U19 gold medal game is 12:45 p.m. with bronze being awarded at 9:45 a.m.
The U16 championship is at 11 a.m., the bronze match gets started at 11:30 a.m..
U14 settles first-place medals at 9:30 a.m. with the bronze game at 8:15 a.m.
The U12 championship game is at 8 a.m.
Stay tuned with the News for updates on the Medicine Hat teams and their chase to win the hardware on home ice.
