They had Kin 2 home-ice advantage working for them, knowing they'd already hung three lopsided losses on the Quesnel Lightning this season.
But the Prince George Hart Modular Homes/All Rhodes Pilot Service Rush under-14 quad lacked the big-bodied presence of birthday boy Stevie Jaroszuk, who celebrated becoming a teenager Sunday with five goals to spark the Lightning to a 7-5 win over the Rush at the Joy Hoffman Memorial tournament.
At five-foot-nine, 160 pounds, without his ringette gear, Jaroszuk dwarfed all of his peers on the ice, and had even the referees watching out to make sure they didn't get in his way. He dominated the ring virtually every time he touched it and that made life difficult for the Rush, who had beaten the Quesnel team by as much as 20-1 this season.
"This is one of the biggest wins we've had this season, our goalie played awesome and our whole team played really well with lots of passing lots of shooting," said Jaroszuk, now in his fourth season of ringette, who realizes because of his size advantage his every move on the ice is being closely monitored by the officials. "It's really hard, every time a girl bumps into you and falls over, you'll get the penalty every time. "
Quesnel took a 4-1 lead into the intermission, three off the stick of Jaroszuk and one from Kaitlyn Robertson. Lightning goalie Mitchell Allen was a lot busier in the second half of the game and made at least 10 quality stops in the final 20 minutes to keep the Lightning comfortably ahead.
Two goals from Alexi Christieson and a single from Keira Meroniuk brought the Rush to within a one-goal deficit, trailing 5-4 with four minutes left and it appeared the home team would add to the total with two Lightning skaters in the penalty box. But instead, Sadie Skinner scored shorthanded on Rush goalie Tashina Wilmot, and Jaroszuk collected his fifth with 1:25 left. Alexa Mocilac put one more ring behind Allen but it was too little, too late.
"Their goaltender [Allen] was outstanding compared to the first two he played and they played a tighter defence too," said Rush head coach Keith Sullivan. "[Jaroszuk] is so big, so strong. I have a couple girls who can handle him, but sometimes not quite legally."
