The Rocky Mountain way was paved with bronze at the Alberta Winter Games on Sunday.
The Rocky Mountain U13 AA Raiders finished off a dramatic 1-0 victory over Central Alberta in a shootout to skate away with the bronze medal in female hockey at the 2024 Alberta Winter Games on Feb. 19 in Grande Prairie.
The Okotoks-based Raiders went 2-1 in round-robin, scoring a 3-2 win over Grande Prairie and 7-0 triumph over Edmonton Blue along with a 4-0 defeat to Central Alberta.
They would get their revenge in the third-place final rematch, outlasting their opponents in the shootout. Ironically, the Raiders punched their ticket to Grande Prairie via a shootout victory over Airdrie in the zone playdowns in December.
The Raiders feature 10 players from Okotoks — Ally Hallam, Aubrey Mannix-Gear, Brooklynn Saboe, Callie Kalmakoff, Chelsea Arsenault, Elliott Hefferan, Heidi Eckberg, Isabelle Nicolle, Jewels Kerr and Westyn Webb — Lacey Hill from Foothills, Sterling Christman from Diamond Valley, Molli Radford from Strathmore, Taylor Markert from Vulcan, Jane Loree from Nanton and Amarah Mateshaytis, Emma Sawin and Lily Redmond from Chestermere.
In the boys hockey competition, Zone 2 just missed out on the podium.
The Okotoks U15 AA Oilers, the Zone representatives, finished fourth in Grande Prairie.
The team had a 3-0 record in round-robin and was edged 6-5 by Zone 8 in the bronze medal match.
All told, Zone 2 produced the third most medals behind only the Edmonton and Calgary zones.
For more information, visit 2024awg.com.
