Submitted
Ponoka’s U9 girls team was the only all girls team to compete at Bentley’s tournament over the weekend.
Bentley hosted its annual U9 tournament with Ponoka Storm represented by 14 eager girls, participating in their first tournament situation.
Other teams were mixed gender or boys only. While the girls didn’t win any of their matches, their coaches were impressed by the tenacity, spirit and improvement the girls showed through their three matches.
Our U11 boys, coached by Greg Bendera attended the Summit Cup in Airdrie. In their first outing, the boys lost 7-1 to KEYSA 1 from Cranbrook B.C., then tied MUSC from Medicine Hat 3-3. Their final match of the tournament was a loss to Cranbrook #2 on Sunday morning in the freezing rain.
The C.A.S.A. Selects U17 girls team also competed in Airdrie; they faced Cochrane in their first match, losing 3-0. Game 2 of the round robin was a 2-0 win over a Calgary team. The girls won the Bronze medal with a 4-3 win after a penalty shootout. Representing Ponoka on the Selects team are: Brook and Grace Smith, Shaelyn Goodwin, Zoe Pitre, Nicole Lagarde, Emma Bendera, Rheona Morrow, and Hailey Pettersen.
Storm’s U13 boys added to their tournament medal collection with a gold at the Millet Classic. in extremely windy and rainy weather.
The boys, coached by Brad Normandeau and Chris McLean, were undefeated in round robin play. Their first match was an 8-0 win over Leduc, followed by a 7-0 defeat of Pigeon Lake. Sunday morning started with a 5-2 victory over Hinton and then a 10-1 win over the host Millet team. The gold medal match was played against the team from Hinton — Ponoka won by a decisive 5-1 score.
Coach Brad Normandeau said, “The story of the tournament was our defending. Drayden Ramage played six halves and over 200 minutes as keeper. We went 180 minutes into the tournament before we got scored on. “