Gazette staff
The Tri-port bantam girls hockey team reached the championship game of the Oceanside girls hockey tournament for the second straight year and went to a double shootout before taking the silver medal with a 3-2 loss to Sooke Dec. 29 in Parksville.
“It was an exciting finish,” coach Boni Sharpe said. “And we only had nine skaters. It goes to show you just how gifted the North Island skaters are. They’re an amazing group of girls.”
The Wild Onez opened the tourney with a 3-2 loss to Sooke, but bounced back impressively with a 7-2 romp over Oceanside. The squad then earned a rematch with Sooke in the championship final with a 2-0 win over Cowichan Valley. That contest was scoreless until Randi Ward and Tiffany Watson both scored in the final 1:31 of the third period.
The Wild Onez played from behind in the final, getting a goal from Emma Mitchell to tie it 1-1 in the second period and another from Kerrigan Sharpe in the third to knot the score 2-2.
The teams played through a scoreless, five-minute overtime skating 4-on-4, then went to a five-player shootout. Sooke scored with its first shot, then both goalies shut down their opponents until Kerrigan Sharpe scored on Tri-port’s fifth and final shot to tie it again.
The teams then went to a sudden-death shootout, which Sooke finally ended with a score on its second attempt.
“Nobody could shoot twice in the shootout, and we only had nine,” Boni Sharpe said. “If it had kept going, we would have had to bring Sarah Case out of goal to shoot.”
In the opening game, Kerrigan Sharpe and Watson each had goals and Ward and Mercedes Trevor added assists.
In the win over Oceanside, Trevor had a hat trick, Ward scored twice and Mitchell and Watson each scored goals.