Okotoks teams made a golden return to a girls hockey showcase on home-ice.
The Okotoks Female Hockey Classic saw nine hometown teams qualify for finals at the 14th annual event with golden performances at the U18 A, U18 B, U15 A and U11 A levels.
“It means a lot, especially to all of the girls,” said Oilers U18 A forward Grace Bjornson. “The community is definitely growing in girls hockey and seeing them come together in one tournament it really opens your eyes to see there is a lot of potential in girls hockey and it’s going places.”
In the U18 A division, the Oilers showcased their goal-scoring prowess in dispatching Sherwood Park 7-2 in the gold medal game on Nov. 14.
“It’s definitely the bonding we have with each other, there’s no cliquing, we all work together great as a team,” Bjornson said. “Everybody works well, everybody had their feet moving and was passing great. Our goalie (Paige Williams) was great in the net, standing on her head every single game.
“It was just everybody working together as a team.”
The Oilers earlier got past Red Deer and Sherwood Park and lost to Edmonton during round-robin play.
The timing of the tournament couldn’t be better as the squad shifts from tiering games into the real thing.
“We’re starting to push towards regular season and get into league games,” Bjornson said. “And really this tournament is a starter so that we can really work together as a team.
“And I think that really paid off.”
Teamwork paid off in the form of a gold medal for the Okotoks U15 A Oilers after an undefeated run through the four-day competition.
Okotoks outscored its opposition by a 16-5 count through three round-robin triumphs.
“The girls played really well, we just wanted to take it one period at a time as a group and they played a great team game,” said Oilers U15 A coach Mark Hallam. “The tournament organizers did a heck of a job with all of the planning and our girls wanted to make sure they did their part to come out and have some fun and play hard.”
The Oilers held off Sherwood Park 2-1 in a thrilling gold medal final at the Piper Arena.
“It was a hard fought battle both ways and I think we had the play at the start of the game and they came out and pushed in the second and third period,” Hallam added. “There was a plethora of penalties there both ways, but we got the kills and (Madilyn Juneau) our goaltender played real well.
“Our team concept has been that we pull the rope in the same direction together and we all do it together, it’s a big team game for us and that’s why we had our success.”
Elsewhere, in an all-Okotoks final Okotoks Green got the better of Gold in a shootout to win the U18 B division. Both teams brought 3-0 records into the final and were the class of the tournament throughout.
Two new entries into the tournament came away with silver finishes as the Rocky Mountain Raiders skated in the Classic for the first time, with teams at the 15U AA and 13U AA level.
The 15U Raiders nearly put a storybook finish on their first trip through the competition but their comeback came up just short in a 5-4 shootout loss in the gold medal game to the Olds Grizzlys.
Avaya McCann and Kamryn Reiber scored third period goals, the latter in the final 90 seconds of regulation, to force overtime.
Rocky Mountain was 2-0-1 entering the final and had big wins over Sherwood Park and North Central.
The U13 AA Raiders were edged out 3-1 in the final by a strong Regina squad following a 2-1 record posted in pool play, highlighted by wins over Calgary and St. Albert.
In the U13 A division, the Okotoks Oilers also skated to a silver following a 5-0 loss in the final to Lloydminster. The Oilers were 2-1 in round-robin.
Okotoks were medallists at both the U11A and U11 B levels.
In U11 A, Okotoks edged Edmonton 3-2 in a shootout in the final after Okotoks had won two of three pool play matches. In U11 B, Okotoks was upended by Lloydminster 4-1 in the final.
In U15 B, both Okotoks Gold and Green did not advance to the medal round.
The four-day tournament featured 50 teams in 11 divisions with squads playing out of the Pason Centennial Arenas and at both rinks at the Okotoks Recreation Centre.
“The girls when they’re way down in Timbits and Novice start coming into the tournament and (tournament organizer) Jen Dustow and her crew over all of the years have done a phenomenal job in organizing this and bringing teams in from all over,” Hallam added.
“It’s really what it’s all about, a bunch of different communities getting together, the girls playing hard and having good sportsmanship as well at the end of the day.
“It’s great for the community and the buzz of the town leading up to it.”
For more information go to okotoksfemalehockey.com.
