MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Water Valley’s Dylan Pighin and her U16 AA Team Alberta ringette teammates have won the Canadian championship gold medal.
The championship tournament featured 18 teams and was played in Calgary April 3-9. All games were played at Seven Chiefs Sportsplex and Winsport.
Team Alberta went undefeated in the round robin, defeating Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Calgary Matrix and London Lynx.
The team then beat Team Ontario in the quarter finals and then the Calgary Surge in the semi, setting up a final against Team New Brunswick.
Played on April 9, the final game was attended by 1,500 fans, as well as more than 3,500 online.
Dylan, who plays centre, had four points in the final game, which saw Team Alberta win 7-6 in overtime.
Dylan, 15, is in her tenth year in ringette, which is played on the same ice surface as hockey, with three forwards, two defence and one goalie on each shift.
Winning the national championships was a thrilling experience, she told the Albertan following the big win.
“It was pretty great,” said Dylan. “Going into the tournament we didn’t really know what to expect because we hadn’t played those teams and it was the first time going to nationals for all of us. We had no idea what was going to happen.
“As we started playing we started playing our game and just got into it and did our best basically. We went into every game with a good attitude and a good mind-set and play as hard as we could.”
The tournament competition was very good, she said.
“There were no teams there that we could take lightly,” she said. “Every team was good competition.”
Dylan’s 2021-22 season isn’t over yet. She has been selected as a member of the Team Alberta Elite team, which will be travelling to Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden later this month for the Lions Cup international tournament.
She says she’s looking forward to the trip to Europe and is confident the Alberta team will do well.
“It’s a quick turnaround and it’s going to be fun,” she said.
Ringette was first played in Espanola, Ontario in 1963.
