Morning Star Staff
By his own admission, Vernon Adrenaline Rush veteran goalie Garrett Adams played his best game of the year in the last game of the annual Kelowna Sweetheart ringette tournament.
The towering netminder stopped all but one shot in Sunday’s championship, leading the shorthanded Rush to a 2-1 win over the Kelowna A’s in the U16 gold-medal game.
The division featured two five-pool teams from B.C. and Alberta.
Alyssa Racine, from Emma Carter, and Shelby Connors, on a set-up from Kendra Ostafie, scored for the Rush, who had eight skaters for the game after welcoming back Evan Koshure, who was injured in a game against Calgary Bow View Strike Saturday and taken out of the arena in an ambulance.
Vernon started the series by tying Calgary North Ascent 4-4. Ostafie (2G), Koshure (2G). Evan Koshure (1+1) and Connors handled the Rush offence.
Next game was against Alberta’s Leduc Jaguars with Vernon winning 7-1 though the Rush lost Saige Woodliffe and Ava Haldane to volleyball for the rest of the tournament.
Alex Drury led the Rush with three goals. Ostafie had 1+2 and other singles came from Racine, Carter, Emily Williams and Connors.
Adams recorded his first shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over the Port Coquitlam/Ridge Meadows Stealth. Ostafie, Racine and Sailor Martian handled the scoring for Vernon, who then knocked off Bow Valley 5-2.
Ostafie (2+2) and Drury (2G) led the Rush with Connors adding the fifth goal and Koshure chipped in two assists before her injury.
In the semifinal Sunday morning, the Rush, who finished first in their pool, were limited to seven skaters but still rolled to a 4-1 win over the Richmond Royals, who were second in their pool.
Ostafie scored twice with singles going to Drury and Racine, who scored into an empty net on helpers from Ostafie and Adams.
The Rush will host the provincial finals March 6 to 8.
The Vernon Strikers had a brilliant run at the Sweetheart tournament, going 4-0 to win their division.
They started the weekend off early Friday morning with a 13-0 shutout win over Prince George, as Victoria Schultz was solid in net and the offence was spread out among the players.
The Strikers doubled the Westside Wildfire 4-2 in a rough and tight-checking game. Goals were scored by Caryss Hill, Brianna Visser, Madison Edgar and Alecia Hughes, while Sierra Fernley was strong in net.
The Strikers fought hard Saturday morning against the Port Coquitlam/RidgeMeadows Rebels and won 7-5. Aimee Skinner and Sydney Lewis each fired in three with Lauren Cooke potting in one to finish the Rebels off.
In the final game of the tourney, the Strikers peppered the Kelowna Purple Minions of Kelowna with shot after shot en route to a 9-4 victory.
The Vernon Flare played their best ringette of the season in the U12 division at the Sweetheart.
The Flare opened with an 8-6 loss to the Delta Hurricanes. Kristin Ho had a hat trick for the Flare, Ashley Wadsworth added a deuce and Abby Sveistrup had the other goal for Vernon, who bounced back to dump the Burnaby-New West Blazers 5-1.
Ho had another hatty with Sveistrup and Alassa Johnson adding the other markers.
The Flare then thwarted the Fraser Valley Ring Robbers 6-1 with Bryn Korol showing great offensive strength to boost the offence, led by hat tricks from Ho (3+2) and Sveistrup (3+1). Kaila Summerfelt played her best game of the season in goal for the Flare, diving at rebounds. The team also got great cheering support from injured teammate Sam Shaw.
In their final game, the Flare and Kelowna Chiefs played to a 3-3 tie. Ho scored twice including one in the last two minutes to earn the tie. Jasmine Horton had the other goal for the Flare, who got great efforts all weekend from Brooklyn Tardiff, Chloe Scaber, and Miah Cohen.
The Vernon Ice Bunnies were also undefeated in Kelowna, opening with a win against the Westside Ice Warriors (no scoresheet was available but Jaelynn Gillman scored her first goal for Vernon).
The Ice Bunnies tied Shuswap 5-5 on two goals from Kate Boyd and singles from Lucia Manton, Rhys Leibel and Danika Vienneau.
Vernon then knocked off the Kelowna Huskies 10-4 with Leibel scoring three times and Naomi Hughes and Natasha Vienneau each chipping in a pair to lead the Vernon offence. Adding singles were Manton, Kendyl Munk and Boyd.
In the Ice Bunnies’ final game, they defeated the Kelowna Minions 9-6 with nine different players scoring goals.
Finding the back of the net were Julia Brandner, Manton, Leibel, Theryn Pettyn, Rory Land, Kiera Horton, Natasha Vienneau, Jade Peterson and Ava Gillman.
