Richmond Ravens are provincial Midget “A” champions for the fourth time in five years after a successful trip to Kamloops.
The juggernaut rep girls hockey program capped off another memorable campaign with a 4-0 victory over Kamloops in Wednesday’s championship game. The team rode the shutout goaltending of Harmony Sander who concluded her midget career with her third B.C. title, joining teammates Kiki Richardson and captain Yvonne Mikulcik who were all Bantam AP call-ups back in 2013.
The road to provincial gold took an unexpected turn when the Ravens ran into a hot goalie and dropped a 2-0 round-robin decision to Terrace. It was a result that left Richmond second in their pool and set-up a semi-final date with main rival Surrey.
The showdown of Lower Mainland rivals proved to be a classic as the Ravens pulled out a dramatic 4-3 overtime win. Mikulcik provided the difference when she outraced the Surrey goaltender to a loose puck and skated around her to net the winner with just 1:12 left in overtime.
“You always look back at the first provincial title but that was probably our most dramatic win and, certainly biggest goal in the history of going to provincials,” said Ravens longtime coach AJ Sander. “It turned out the championship game ended up being the semi-final. We had a pretty good idea after the Terrace game that was going to happen but we always knew we where going to cross paths with them at some point of the tournament.”
Richmond still had to take care of a Kamloops team that handed Terrace its first loss in the other semi-final match and had earlier drubbed Surrey 6-2.
The Ravens relied on their stellar defensive play with Harmony Sander picking up her third shutout of the tournament. Justine Goebers, the lone rookie in the roster, netted the game winner.
“All season long, our greatest concern was scoring goals,” continued AJ Sander. “Even with that (shutout loss to Terrace) we averaged four goals per game which is one better than during the regular season so our offensive really stepped up. For some reason though, we never had trouble scoring goals against Surrey.”
Richmond opened the championships with a 7-0 romp over Salmon Arm and also blanked South Island 4-0 to nail down a playoff berth.
Sander will face an extensive rebuilding job next season with eight of his players graduating.
This year's team includes: Goal: Harmony Sander, Shannon Wilson. Defence: Natalie Lester, Alex Cafik-Irwin, Samantha Gazley “A”, Montana Lewis “A”, Kianna Tsui, Leigh Bourque. Forwards: Yvonne Mikulcik “C”, Emily Chau “A”, Jaya Gill, Tatum Freigang “A”, Melissa Phillips, Kyra Kuramoto, Kiki Richardson, Justine Geobers, Meagan Wilson, Mahara Gibson.
Head coach: AJ Sander
Assistants: Nicole Kelly, Kelly, Natalie Korenic, Richard Ho, Tony Cheema, Kasey Schell. Manager: Pam Baker. Safety Person: Satwant Bhatia-Sander.
