 photo submitted - The Medicine Hat Fury ringette team celebrates its gold medal win at the Edmonton Silver Ring Tournament Sunday. |
It all came together for one Medicine Hat ringette team this past weekend.
The Palliser Orthotics Fury under-12 team won gold Sunday at the Edmonton Silver Ring tournament, their first championship of the season.
After going 2-1 in the round robin the Fury got some revenge against the only team they'd lost to, then hung on for a 7-6 win over Calgary Bow View in the gold medal game.
Maddy Edwards had two goals in the final, Alex Stanke was named player of the game and a surprise goaltender, Nolan Burzminski, held the fort in what's normally a female-dominated sport.
Medicine Hat had to endure a late 6-on-4 power play to secure the title but never trailed the Calgary squad.
Earlier results included wins of 5-3 over the Calgary Ambush, 8-6 over the Edmonton Vortex and a 6-5 loss to Edmonton Nitro. Fury beat Nitro 6-3 in the semifinal.
Also at the Silver Ring, Medicine Hat's TSG Insurance Havoc took silver in a four-team under-14 division.
After a 2-1 round robin record, the Havoc got a spectacular goaltending effort from Mishaela Lanigan in a 7-0 semifinal win over Edmonton Nova. But Beaumont's Bazzang got past them in the final, holding the Hat girls scoreless in the second period of a 6-2 decision.
Playdowns a battle
A gruelling weekend came down to one game for the Stark's Krush under-14 B team.
A double-knockout, three-team playoff this past weekend decided the Zone 1 representative at the upcoming provincials in St. Albert next month. But the Krush couldn't quite qualify in an electric final.
The weekend in Bow Island began with an 8-4 loss to the Brooks Synergy Saturday morning. A few hours later Medicine Hat eliminated Lethbridge with a 4-3 victory, led by two goals from Kelli Bowles.
That left Brooks and Medicine Hat, but Medicine Hat needed to beat Brooks twice to earn the provincial berth. And for a while, it looked like they were up to the challenge.
On Sunday the Krush won 8-7 with Bowles, Taylor Chase and T.J. Stroh all scoring two goals each. That set up a winner-take-all final, which Brooks won 7-6. Chase had a hat trick in the narrow loss.
Under-12
The Memory Lane Mirage played in Strathmore's Laurie Ruppe Memorial tournament over the weekend, but had to settle for playing spoiler.
Losses to St. Albert (10-2) and Strathmore (7-1) had the Hat girls eliminated from playoff contention prior to their last game. But they eliminated Lethbridge from the medal round, winning 11-5.
Horvath this weekend
The Mirage are among nine local teams which will compete in the final weekend of the Ed Horvath Interprovincial Classic this weekend. The annual event takes two weekends to complete, with the first already held in January.
Rinks all across Medicine Hat will be abuzz with action starting Friday afternoon. Under-9, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-19 divisions will be involved, with finals slated for Sunday afternoon.
