Terrace’s Bantam Female Rep team kicked the door to their 2012/2013 hockey season right open with a decisive first place win at the opening tournament of the year in Williams Lake
The team took off early from Terrace on the weekend of Oct. 12-14 to make it for their first game against Kamloops on Friday night. They won that first match 4-1, gaining a bit of confidence that stuck with them for the rest of the weekend.
“At this tournament we had the opportunity to see where our team was at with regards to competing in the province,” said coach Mario Desjardins.
And if this tournament is any indication, they’re not in a bad spot.
The second game saw them up against the hosts of the tournament. “Williams Lake’s goal played a fantastic game facing 63 shots,” Desjardins said. But Terrace outplayed them in the end, winning 5-2.
In the next match, they were up against defending B.C. provincial champions, Prince George.
“Our girls were a bit nervous, but it didn’t take them long for them to get on the score board which gave them confidence for the balance of the game,” he said.
Terrace dominated the game, outshooting PG 35 -11 and winning 8-5.
Then it was time to play the also-undefeated and highly-favoured Vernon Lakers for the final game.
Terrace came out aggressive, putting pressure in every zone of the rink and took an early 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game with goals from Marissa Nichol and Caitlyn Ray. Heading into the second period, Nichol added another goal on a breakaway, but Vernon answered by the end of the period with three quick goals making it a 3-3 tie.
But Terrace wasn’t going to let this game slip away, and two minutes into the third Ray fired home a slap shot from the right side, beating the goalie high on the glove side.
“A highlight reel goal that gave the girls the extra life they needed,” said Desjardins. “The girls never looked back.”
Myah Bowal buried another goal with less than three minutes to play to put the game away.
“We had a solid performance from both goalies. Meghan Pritchett stopping 14 shots and Katerina Samaras stopping eight shots,” he said. “A great result for our first tournament.”
“Our team played exceptionally well with not too many breakdowns in all four games,” he said.
But the team still has three other tournaments to attend before they can get a good read on where the team ranks in the province in preparation of provincials in March.
The next tournament is in Vernon on Nov. 2 where the team will go up against two teams they haven’t seen yet—the Richmond Ravens, ranked second in Vancouver and Kootenay Ice, ranked second in the Okanagan league behind Vernon. The Kamloops tournament at the end of November will be the team’s biggest test yet as they face off against the first-ranked North Shore Winter Club in their first game.