The Williams Lake Midget Girls Timberwolves capped off a successful season late March — finishing its campaign with two tournament wins.
The team, while not officially designated a rep team, is only allowed to play in three tournaments throughout the course of the year and won both a tournament in Clearwater in January and the 100 Mile House Attitude on Ice tournament from March 16-18.
“What we did is we didn’t do a rep team this year for the girls — we just did a tournament team,” said co-coach Cordell Wiebe who, along with Al Hare, helped put the team together.
“We thought we’d throw it together to see if there was interest and we put a good squad together.”
The third tournament, which ran March 23-24 in Richmond, saw the Timberwolves nab fifth place after moving up into a more competitive division than they’d been in the last two years at the tournament.
“Traditionally the girls always go down to the Richmond tournament at the end of the year,” he said.
“We got moved up because we’d won it the last two tournaments when they were peewees and bantams.
“We were playing against teams that play in a girls’ league all year long so it was good competition.”
Williams Lake’s first game saw them skate to a 2-1 defeat to the eventual tournament winner, Oceanside.
“We were up 2-1 but they scored two goals and beat us 3-2,” Wiebe said.
Next, the T-wolves faced Comox Valley, which ended in a 1-1 tie.
“After that we had to win by a certain number of goals in our last round robin game but we fell one goal short, so we ended up playing for fifth,” he said.
Tess Hare scored her second of the game with 18 seconds left in the third period to lift Williams Lake to a 2-1 victory.
“We called a timeout and ran a set play,” Wiebe said.
“We won the draw right back to the defenceman, the defenceman fired it on net and Tessa got the goal.”
Goaltender Bailey Schick was between the pipes at the tournament, and picked up the first-place wins in Clearwater and 100 Mile House.
In Clearwater Williams Lake went a perfect 4-0 to take the title. At the Attitude on Ice Tournament the T-wolves skated to two one-goal wins and a 4-0 shutout before clashing with 100 Mile House in the final.
“We ended up winning that one with a minute left in overtime,” Wiebe said.
“Teneal Schick scored the game winner.”
Wiebe added he was impressed with the way the team played in Richmond, especially after moving up a division.
“I’m very impressed with how they played, and they competed well,” he said.
“The two teams that were in the final we lost by one and tied. It was a fun group to coach.”
