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Busy crease load for Richmond goalie

Tayler Cohen will be heading to Fort St. John next month for the B.C. Winter Games
hockey
Tayler Cohen in action for Delta's U16A team at last weekend's 25th annual West Coast Classic. The Grade 8 McNair Secondary student is also in her first season playing ice hockey for the Richmond Ravens.

Whether it’s stopping rings or pucks, Tayler Cohen is spending plenty of time in the goal crease these days.

The Grade 8 student at McNair Secondary is fresh off backstopping Delta’s U16A team to a semi-final appearance at Richmond Ringette’s 25th annual West Coast Classic.

She has established herself as one of the sport’s top stoppers for her age group in the region, having played for the Lower Mainland AA all-star team last season. Next month, she will be between the pipes for Vancouver Coastal at the B.C. Winter Games in Fort St. John.

Adding to Cohen’s ice time in a big way this winter is her decision to play ice hockey for the very first time. 

With already established goalies at her own Bantam age group, she is making her debut at the older Midget level for the Richmond Ravens C2 team. She is also often seeing double duty with the Ravens C1 squad.

“I didn’t do Lower Mainland ‘AA’ this year so it was an opportunity to play another sport and bond with other people too,” said Cohen, following her team’s semi-final loss on Sunday to eventual champion Calgary at the Richmond Ice Centre. “Probably since I first started playing ringette six or seven years ago I thought about playing hockey too.”

Cohen adds it’s been an adjustment stopping the smaller pucks that are coming at her with more velocity. She says playing at the Midget age level actually is closer to the pace of play she sees on a regular basis at the U16A level in ringette.

“Hockey is probably more aggressive with more back and forth play too,” she continued. “I’m going to keep doing both sports until the end of the season and eventually decide on one sport.”

Cohen is looking forward to the B.C. Winter Games experience. Her zone team is allowed just six practices prior to heading Fort St. John — Feb. 20-23. Those are typically all day sessions.

“These are girls who we have been rivals with on the ice so it’s been nice getting to know them off of it,” added Cohen.

School sports is also a big part of her schedule. She is also juggling playing for the Marlins Bantam girls basketball team. She played for the volleyball team in the fall.

Last spring, she was a member a female ball hockey team that went to nationals and also played softball too.