The Olds Female Midget Renegades lost a close 1-0 contest in the final of the Midget B Provincial Hockey Championships in Barrhead.
The team opened the tournament on Thursday tying the host Barrhead Blackhawks 3-3. The team then followed that up with an 11-0 victory over the Edmonton Triple Threat on Friday and a 4-3 victory the same day over the Fort McMurray Barons. The Renegades then dropped their only game of the preliminary round, 4-3, to the Wetaskiwin Co-op Country Junction.
The Renegades were also victorious in the semifinal, 4-3, over the Vauxhall Rebels before suffering their second loss of the tournament to the Co-op Country Junction.
“We built on our consolation (side league) win from the weekend before and followed up with a good round robin play on Thursday, Friday … and finished it up with a very strong semifinal win over arch-nemesis Vauxhall,” said Chris Heck, the team's coach.
The Renegades played extremely well in the final, but just couldn't get the break they needed to put it over the top, Heck said.
“We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them and we just couldn't get that equalizer. Wetaskiwin has beat us all year and we … didn't beat them in the round robin — that was our only loss — and we couldn't beat them in the final,” he said.
A total of five players on the team played their last minor hockey in Olds — Michelle Pochapsky, Alysha Heck, Becky Lehto, Cayley Turnbull and Karissa Jamieson. Heck said getting into the final of the provincial championships was a good way to go out for the quintet.
“If you get to the final two, you are what I would call the cream of the crop,” he said.
In other provincial hockey news, the Olds Midget Mustangs finished with a 2-2 record at the Midget AA Provincial Championships in Peace River Friday through Sunday. The Mustangs opened the tournament on Friday with a 9-3 victory over the Grande Prairie Capstan Hauling Spartans, then dropped a 3-0 decision to the Red Deer Pro Stitch Chiefs. The Mustangs rebounded with a 4-2 victory in their next contest against the Lloydminster Sobeys Blazers, advancing to the semifinal, where they fell 8-2 to the Lethbridge Midtown Auto Care Hurricanes.
"If you get to the final two, you are what I would call the cream of the crop."Chris Heck, coach, Olds Female Midget Renegades
