Compared to most of the bantam Tier 1 girls hockey teams they will play this season, the Western Industrial Contracting Cougars are on the young side of the age spectrum.
Just five of the 16 players on the roster are in their second bantam season.
That might seem a big disadvantage but it hasn't seemed to hurt the Cougars. The hosts of the eight-team D&G Placer Mining tournament last weekend gave the Peace County Storm of Grande Prairie a spirited battle playing for bronze Sunday afternoon at Kin 2.
Already leading by a goal, the Storm made it a 3-1 game 14 seconds into the third period when Charlene Sallis's centring feed from the corner went off the stick of Cougars goalie Tessa Sturgeon and deflected in off the body of Jailyn Bablitz, standing just outside the crease.
It was a tough break for the Cougars. But they didn't get mad. They almost got even.
A feisty forecheck along the end boards from Ocean Andersen forced the Storm to cough up the puck and she set up linemate Amy Goetken for a shot from the slot that was stopped by Storm goalie Grace Lutz. Cricket Colebank, one of the smaller players on the ice, showed her persistence around the net and batted in the rebound from the side of the net with nine minutes left.
The Cougars had several chances to tie it on a late power-play chance and pointman Brooke Norkus came close to forcing overtime when she got free for a shot but Lutz stood her ground to preserve a 3-2 victory.
Anlyn Toews and Bablitz also scored for the Storm. Brooklyn Hutchings collected the other Cougar goal. Sturgeon made 29 saves as her team outshot the Storm 36-32.
"That was a good game, a few weird bounces," said Sturgeon 14, one of the second-year bantams. "I thought we were pretty solid."
in their other tournament results the Cougars (1-1-2) lost their opener 4-2 to the Storm, beat B-Rae (Fort St. John) 11-0, tied Lloydminster 1-1 and finished deadlocked with Leduc 2-2. In an all-Alberta matchup in the championship game on Sunday, Leduc defeated Lloydminster 5-1.
The Cougars will represent the north central zone at the provincial championship in Vancouver, March 21-25, and Sturgeon predicts her team will come out with a strong showing.
"We're all a close team and we play good against the Mainland teams so I think we'll do good," she said.
Cougars head coach Mario Desjardins is back coaching after one season away from the game. He coached the Northern Capitals/Cougars to several league titles in the B.C. Hockey Female Midget Triple-A League over a seven-year span and foresees similar success for the local bantams as they make their way up the minor hockey chain.
"We were in tough going into this but at the same time the girls played hard," said Desjardins. "This is a really young bantam team with 11 first-years. That's quite different from other teams. Usually it's the other way around, so the future of this female program in Prince George is certainly looking good as far as the girls looking to get into midget."
The Cougars placed third at their first tournament of the season in Richmond and had a strong fifth-place showing at Wickfest in Calgary. They'll play another tournament this weekend in Surrey.
Helping Desjardins behind the scenes are assistant coaches Grace Barlow, Doug Sturgeon, Bobby Hutchings and team manager Bryan Norkus.
"Overall, this is kind of a learning year because it's such a young group of girls but they've come a long way," said Desjardins.
"Before I got into major midget I started with a group of bantam girls who had a passion for the game and wanted to learn and I'm finding the same thing happening with this group of bantam girls. We do have a lot of talent on this team, girls who are willing to put in the work it takes to get to the next level."
