Richmond Ravens Female Ice Hockey had plenty to celebrate on Wednesday night in Kamloops.
The association continued its recent domination at the provincial championships by capturing the Midget and Pee Wee titles.
Making their ninth consecutive appearance at the B.C. showcase event, the Ravens repeated as Midget champions with a hard-fought 4-1 win over Kamloops in the gold medal game.
The result capped a thrilling day for AJ Sander’s squad — starting with a 4-3 semi-final overtime victory over arch-rival Surrey. The teams had met earlier in the month in the Pacific Coast Amateur playoff final with Richmond prevailing in that game too.
The Ravens’ road to the final included earlier round-round wins over Salmon Arm (7-0) and South Island (4-0). The girls did suffer a rare loss to Terrace (2-0) which left them second in their pool and set-up the final four encounter with Surrey. Kamloops had advanced by handing Terrace its first loss of the tournament — 4-1.
The Pee Wee Provincials saw the Ravens cap a dominating season with a perfect 6-0 run.
Richmond and North Shore closed out round-robin play against each other Wednesday morning, knowing they would be facing each other again hours later in the gold medal game.
The B.C. Hockey banner caps a breakthrough season for Mitch Ward’s squad that began by capturing the Ravens own Rep Classic back in November. They also won the PCAHA playoffs in convincing fashion — outscoring their opponents 27-2 over six games.
The road to provincial gold included earlier wins over Prince George (7-0), Tri-Cities (3-1), Kelowna (6-0) and Langley (3-1).
