After twice seeing her team's lead slip away in the final minute, Abby Van Diemen had 10 seconds left when she stabbed the ring and lifted a shot at the net.
The 13-year-old forward jumped for joy when the rubber ring caught a piece of goalie Chris Mohns and skipped off the ice into the net with 8.1 seconds left on the clock. It gave the Quesnel under-14 ringette squad a thrilling 9-8 win over Central Interior Catering and Consulting of Prince George in their final game Sunday at the Joy Hoffman Memorial tournament.
"It feels good to beat Prince George," said Van Diemen, a first-year ringette player. "This is my first tournament. We played better together this game and passed more and our goalie is doing way better too."
Quesnel head coach Nathan Strand called a timeout after forward Sasha Mocilac scored the sixth Prince George goal and his pep talk had the desired effect. Quesnel scored three shorthanded goals in the second half to overcome a 6-3 deficit with 10 minutes remaining in the 20-minute second half.
"I just wanted them to settle down and think about their positions and what they had to do," said Strand.
It marked the first win of the season for Quesnel over Prince George in four tries. In the under-14 division opener Friday, Quesnel lost 12-6 to the Hoffman tournament hosts.
Quesnel goalie Laura Oldring is a first-year goaltender and her progression was obvious throughout the three-day tournament. In its other tournament games, Quesnel beat Houston 9-7 and 11-8.
"They've got a brand-new goalie this year and she really picked up her game and it's good to see," said Prince George head coach Mike O'Neill. "They had a good comeback and it makes for some good competition."
Both teams are working towards representing the Northern Ringette League in the provincial championship, March 6-9 in Vernon
Mocilac tied the game 7-7 with 1:44 left on slick wraparound, her fourth goal of the game, but the deadlock didn't last long. Sarah Generous fired a wicked wrist shot into the corner behind Mohns with 52 seconds left and Prince George responded with the equalizer from Austin Campbell with 28.4 seconds remaining. The game would have ended in a tie if not for Van Diemen's late goal.
"That was tough losing like that, because we've been undefeated this season," said 13-year-old Prince George captain Jenna Gray. "In the change room, everyone was loosey-goosey. I think we had overconfidence in there. I'm actually glad we got to play Quesnel today because they improved so much and that made us work harder. They're so much stronger now, we just need to play more as a team."
The Prince George roster includes seven males and 10 females, in stark contrast to the Quesnel under-14s, an all-female team of 14 players. Traditionally a female-dominated sport, minor ringette is open to both genders. About 30 per cent of the players in the 159-player Prince George Ringette Association are boys.
"Lots of boys join because they want extra ice time and a lot of them play hockey too, and they also have sisters who play in the ringette league," said O'Neill. "The boys are more aggressive and they seem to get more penalties. They just play a little rougher."
Most of the boys on the Prince George under-14 team are smaller than their female teammates. Gray said the boys on her team don't try to make it rough on their opponents in ringette, which doesn't allow body contact, but sometimes their hockey instincts take over.
"Sometimes they forget the rules, which are different," said Gray. "We're pretty much the only team that has boys."
Although males are forbidden from playing ringette at the Canada Games and national levels there are no restrictions at the club or provincial rep team levels of minor lacrosse. Despite that, Strand says there has never been a strong contingent of boys playing ringette in Quesnel.
"P.G. seems to have a lot of boys but it doesn't matter to the girls, they don't see it on the ice at all," said Strand. "I didn't know they had that many boys until I saw them go into [the dressing room.] It's an open sport and it's all good."
In other tournament results, the Prince George under-14s defeated Houston 11-6 and 15-7.
The 23rd annual Hoffman tournament is a gathering event for teams in the Northern League to play their league games and no tournament champions are determined. The next set of league games will be played Jan. 4-6 at the Gold Pan tournament in Quesnel.
