It was a very happy Thanksgiving Weekend for the Richmond Ravens Midget AA team, who scored a virtual hat trick with their third consecutive championship title at the fifth annual Nanaimo Extreme Cup Tournament.
The international girls hockey event featured teams from the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and Washington State.
The Ravens played six games in a roundrobin style format.
"We are extremely pleased with the team's effort," said coaches AJ Sander and Christian Matheson. "We have a lot of rookies this year, but the whole team is really starting to gel quickly."
Richmond opened the tournament with a 3-0 win over the North Shore Avalanche. The next day featured a triple header of games as the locals rolled past the Washington Wild (8-4), Kamloops Mystics (7-1), and the host, North Island Extreme (6-2).
The Ravens faced Washington in the semi-final and battled back from a 2-0 deficit, eventually prevailing 4-3. The winning goal came from Sabrina Shigeoka with 4: 06 left in the third period.
They then battled the Avalanche in the final and took the lead early on en route to a 4-0 triumph.
Leah Lum led the team with nine goals over the course of the weekend. The rest of the scoring was spread out among Emily Costales, Jenny Wilson, Jenny Tsai, Rachel Coulson, Rhianna Baker and Jasmine Manhas. The defence, consisting of Tamara Wong, Allison Brown, Alisha Wong, Hannah Coates and Brynley Ross, played strong and were lead by captain Sabrina May who scored two goals, including the winner, in the final.
The strong play of the defence was backed up by stellar goaltending from Marina Reynolds and Kasey Schell, who picked up two shutouts, including the final. Evelyn Tran and Holly Gill, a call-up from the Bantam AA team, contributed offensively by setting up several goals.
