Powerful B.C squad claims gold in women’s tourney

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This article was published 28/01/2024 (618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Thompson-Okanagan Lakers haven’t been kind to their opposition in the BC Elite Hockey League this season and their strong run continued at the Winnipeg Avros’ expense on Sunday.

Backed by a stellar 17-save performance from goaltender Reese Sliskovic, the Lakers edged the Avros 2-1 in the gold-medal game of the Female U18 World Sport School Challenge at the Hockey For All Centre.

Amy Polvere and Alexandra Recsky scored for the Lakers. Samantha Cunningham had the lone reply for the Avros while goaltender Maddie Sylvestre made 29 saves in the defeat.

The tournament, hosted by St. Mary’s Academy, welcomed a record 16 sport school and AAA-level squads from Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia this week. It was a hot spot for the dozens of university scouts who attended and took in the event via live stream.

“I still can’t believe it,” said Sliskovic, 17. “It’s a total dream come true. I hate to be cliché, but it’s incredible.

“They were so strong and they pushed and pushed and battled and those are the kind of teams that are extremely fun to play against because then you can still respect their performance and that they are an extremely strong team. I wish them the best of luck going forward.”

The Lakers pace the B.C. league at 20-8-1-1 this season, thanks in large part to Sliskovic who leads all backstops in starts (17) and wins (12) and is tied for the lead in shutouts (4).

In the tournament, Sliskovic finished with three wins and one shutout while conceding just four goals on 65 shots. The Lakers were unblemished this week, going 5-0 while outscoring opponents 19-4.

“I’m really enjoying a lot of the team’s support,” said Sliskovic. “It’s been super awesome to really just have the team work together and have proper chemistry on and off the ice. Even when any of us are down, we’re just there. We’re just a big family.”

The Avros’ silver medal highlighted an outstanding showing from clubs in the host province. In the all-Manitoban bronze medal matchup earlier in the day, the RINK Hockey Academy vanquished the Eastman Selects in a thrilling 5-4 contest.

Lareina Settee, Shea Warnick, Camille Birch, Addison Dyck and Rowyn Street found the back of the net for RHA while goaltender Bailey Schwartz stopped 25 shots. Isabella Carriere, Addilyn Nohlgren, Cassidy Lesage and Chloe Carriere responded for the Selects. Goaltender Addison Tomes made 18 saves in the loss.

The Avros were attempting to become the first Manitoba squad to win the tournament since St. Mary’s in 2018, and nearly accomplished that feat.

After being scoreless for the first 45 minutes of the contest, the club finally solved Sliskovic in the third period when defenceman Cunningham released a hard shot that hit the top of the goaltender’s glove and trickled into the net.

The goal jump-started the home team but they couldn’t break through again. After dropping their first game of the tournament, the Avros cranked up the offence and rattled off three consecutive wins, outscoring their opponents 13-3 over the next three contests.

The club is fifth in the Manitoba Female Hockey League at 14-9-2 and is optimistic their strong showing this week will lead to bigger things.

“It was actually a really good tournament,” said Cunningham, the 16-year-old blue liner. “We wanted to do well in this tournament and we lost our first game but we built off that and we won our next three games. Yesterday was a really big one for us.

“We’re definitely going to build off this and then leading into the playoffs, as well.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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