Terrace’s Female Midget Rep team is getting ready for provincials in Salmon Arm after beating Smithers in the zone finals two weekends ago.
“I’m pretty proud of our group,” said coach Kevin Kennedy. “Smithers loaded up with a bunch of girls at the end of the season...and we beat ‘em.”
The first game was a “nailbiter,” despite Terrace outshooting Smithers by about 40 shots – Terrace was up 2-0 with 12 minutes left when Smithers got a couple of quick ones. But just under the five minute mark, Bailey Kasum scored, giving Terrace the 3-2 win.
Goaltender Jessica Pritchett was key to the win. She “made some timely saves right at the end of the game there to keep us ahead,” he said.
The second game saw similar play – Terrace “peppered the net, outshot them by a huge margin, carried the play the whole game,” he said. Two goals by Erin Rose gave Terrace the 4-0 win.
This team is young, with only one third-year player, so Kennedy is expecting them to be strong for a while.
“The bulk of the girls were on that provincial winning team last year, so we've got a good group and we're going to be strong for a while,” he said.
The team has seen success this year, winning a tournament in Kamloops where they beat all of the top teams there – the same teams they’ll be meeting at provincials during spring break.
“They’re all gunning for us,” he said. But that doesn’t worry him.
“I think it could be anybody's tournament really. I think we stand a great shot of finishing very well,” he said. “We've shown a lot of consistency, we've had a little bit of success, our goaltending has been strong this year, we've got a wonderful second year player from 100 Mile House, her name is Breanna Uphill. We've got a really good team.”