The Richmond Ravens Peewee “A” team captured its division at the 15th annual MLK Girls/Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament in San Jose, California.
The Ravens capped a memorable run with a 5-1 win over the Anaheim Lady Ducks in Monday’s championship game.
The girls paid tribute to four-year-old Morgan “Mo” May by sporting pink hockey tape on their sticks for the tournament. The future Ravens player is battling leukemia and the entire Richmond Girls Ice Hockey organization has rallied behind her family which has been longtime supporters of the association.
The Ravens were dominant in their preliminary round games, defeating the Los Angeles Lions, Anaheim Lady Ducks and Washington Wild by a cumulative score of 19-1. The semi-final rematch against LA was their second game of the day and the team overcame tired legs to win 5-0.
In the championship final, a scoreless game was broken open when the Ravens erupted for four goals in the span of five minutes late in the second period. Four goals from Izabel Taylor and the game winner by Isabelle Chai paced the team to victory.
The goaltending tandem of Rebecca Noble and Lauren Oliveros were solid throughout the tournament, and together with blueliners Gracie Bagnall-Dubras, Katie Bollo, Kristina Doray, Kaila Kusec, Kiyomi Tien and Caeli Yamanaka, contributed to a very impressive 0.40 goals-against average and.947 save percentage.
In addition to the goal scorers, all of the other forwards played strong two-way games throughout the tournament. They included Jenelle Dee, Ella May Dunn, Allison Honda, Diana MacKenzie, Lexi Mendoza, Tiana Murgatroyd, and Jenna So.
“The kids all worked hard and played great as a team” stated head coach Gordon Taylor, who was helped on the bench by assistants Martin Bollo and Brian Yamanaka.
