The Tri-Port Midget Wild added some more ‘bling’ to their ever-growing collection, bringing home silver medals from an all-weekend female hockey tournament in Powell River.
The Wild played a total of six games from Dec. 2-4, and did they ever dominate the scoreboard.
Their first game was on Friday night against the hometown Powell River Pitbulls, and the girls wasted no time starting the tournament off on the right foot.
Tianna Walkus scored at 14:04 in the 1st period, and then Kaitlyn Wilson and Mandy Foldy added goals in the 2nd to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.
The Wild continued to put the puck in the net in the 3rd period, scoring five goals courtesy of Kerrigan Sharpe (x2), Mackenzie Murgatroyd, Mercedes Trevor, and Taylor Ranger.
Final score, an 8-1 win.
The Wild’s second game was against Abbotsford on Saturday morning, and they came out flying, scoring five goals in the 1st period alone, thanks to Walkus, Bree-Anna Henderson (x2), Ranger, and Trevor.
They continued to find the back of the net in the 2nd period, with five more goals coming from Sharpe (x2), Henderson, Walkus, and Murgatroyd.
The Wild added two more goals in the 3rd period from Trevor and Sharpe to secure the blowout win 12-0.
Their next game was against North Shore, and it was a razor thin game. The Wild got out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st period thanks to a goal from Henderson, but in the 2nd period North Shore scored twice to take the lead back 2-1, which they held onto for the rest of the game.
Final score, 2-1 for North Shore.
The Wild bounced back in their third game of the day, defeating Victoria by a score of 7-1, with goals in all three periods coming from Ranger, Walkus, Henderson (x3), Trevor, and Murgatroyd.
On Sunday morning the Wild had won enough games to qualify for the semi-finals against Vancouver, and they ended up netting five goals over three periods courtesy of Trevor (x2), Ranger (x2), and Henderson to seal the win 5-1.
The finals of the tournament came down to a rematch between the Wild and North Shore, and this game was just as close as their previous encounter on Saturday.
The Wild got out a good start early on with a goal from Trevor at 5:58 of the 1st period, and they held on to the lead until late in the 3rd period, when North Shore’s Brooke Maquignaz scored with only 30 seconds left to tie it up 1-1.
The game went into sudden death. With only 2:01 left to play in overtime, North Shore’s Alicia Reil managed to score, snatching the gold medals from the Wild’s grasp.
Final score, 2-1 for North Shore.
“The girls played awesome,” said Coach Andrew Laming. “It was a 1-0 game for most of it, and North Shore ended up winning in three-on-three overtime. It was a good game, they’re a strong team. A lot of their girls have played competitive hockey in Vancouver and they’ve got a pretty good female association.”
Laming added that what really impressed him the most about the Wild’s performance in the tournament was “all the compliments we got about them, not only on the ice, but off the ice. They’re a classy group of girls and they prove it every time they go somewhere.”
Fresh off their silver medal performance in Powell River, it was back to league play for the Wild on Saturday, Dec. 11 at the Doug Bondue Arena in Port Alice. The game was against the very tough Juan De Fuca Grizzlies, who were their league rivals last season.
The game kicked off in the afternoon and was a defensive battle early on for most of the 1st period, with neither team managing to get on the scoreboard, but the Wild definitely spent more time on attack in the offensive zone than the Grizzlies did.
In the 2nd period it was the Wild who opened the game up offensively, with Murgatroyd jamming the puck past the Grizzlie’s goalie during a scramble in front of the net at 10:32.
The Wild continued to pressure offensively from that point on, taking over the game for large amounts of time with solid passing and lots of shots on net.
Sharpe scored off a wrist shot at 3:58, then scored again with 11.5 seconds left in the period.
Henderson netted a buzzer beater with one second left on the clock to give the Wild a strong 4-1 lead going into the 3rd period.
In the 3rd, the Grizzlies finally managed to get the puck by the Wild’s goalie Avary Miller at 15:25, which ended her two-game league play shutout streak.
The Wild continued to pour on the offence from that point, controlling the puck and getting lots of shots on the Grizzlies’ net, and it continued to pay off for them.
Sharpe scored off a wrist shot by the side of the net with 8:40 left to complete the hat trick and take home the win 5-1.
“The game went pretty good,” said Laming, adding that the Wild “came out and played hard. They did what they needed to do and got a win out of it.”
As of this writing, the Wild are now 4-1, currently in second place in their division, with 21 goals for and only four goals against.
