The Lacoka bantam female hockey team took silver in their home tournament Dec. 14 and 15 after facing a tough opponent in the final — Stettler.
Their first match up of the tournament was also against Stettler, which Lacoka lost 4-1.
Stettler out shot the home team and lost out on a few chances, while their goalie made some key saves on a few breakaways, says head coach Trevor Feragen.
Lacoka was down 3-0 in the third before making their sole goal, but Stettler came back to score again before the buzzer went.
The ladies fared much better in their second game of the tourney, coming up against the West Central Warriors, playing a very one-sided game, winning a decisive 11-0 victory.
The Warriors had a short bench which may have caused some fatigue and attributed to their loss, says Feragen.
“Our girls came out and played hard for 60 minutes.”
West Central’s team is made up of players from Eckville, Bentley, Sylvan and the Rocky Mountain House area.
In the gold medal match, Lacoka was again pitted against Stettler, managing to close the scoring gap a little, holding Stettler to three goals to their one, losing 3-1.
Feragen says Lacoka’s goaltender Emma O’Brien “kept us in the game,” and that overall, it was a great weekend, with the team hosting their first tournament in a while.
The third period of each game on Saturday was filmed and are available on YouTube.
Part of the tournament included a food bank donation challenge, with the team from Lloydminster taking the prize for the most items donated.
The Ponoka Food Bank isn’t open on weekends or Mondays so the weight of the food wasn’t available by press time, although Feragen estimated the items would fill a half-ton truck.
Lacoka, a female team under the Ponoka Minor Hockey Association (PMHA), has players from Ponoka, Maskwacis, Lacombe, Blackfalds and Haynes. The team has one practice in Lacombe each week.
Their next home game is on Saturday, Dec. 21.
The puck drops at 5:45 p.m., but the team is asking people to be in their seats by 5:30 p.m., as a special memorial tribute will be made as PMHA presents the Feragen family with a banner in honour of Clayton Feragen, who passed away in November, 2018.
READ MORE: Ponoka family remembers life of Clayton Feragen
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
