The Tri-Port Midget Wild brought home gold from their Christmas break tournament, racking up three wins and a tie over some very tough competition.
The Wild travelled all the way down to Cowichan Valley to compete, and their first game of the tournament was held Friday night against a team from the mainland, the Vancouver Tri-Cities.
The first period saw no goals scored for either team, but in the second, the Wild’s offence suddenly came to life and they hammered the Tri-Cities team with five straight goals, courtesy of captain Kerrigan Sharpe (x2), Mandy Foldy, Taylor Ranger, and Mackenzie Murgatroyd.
The third period was more of the same, with goals coming from Murgatroyd, Bree-Anna Henderson, Sharpe, Sonja Walkus, Jessica Wadhams, Ranger, and Foldy, giving the Wild a blowout 12-0 win.
The Wild’s second game of the tournament was the next day at 11:00 a.m. against the hometown Cowichan Valley Capitals.
In what turned out to be a goalie’s battle, neither team was able to get on the board at all and it ended in a 0-0 tie.
The Wild would play again later in the afternoon, this time against the Cowichan Valley Capitals bantam team, who were officially allowed to play the Wild “as they were at the top of their league,” said Wild team manager Serena Foldy, who added the Capitals bantam team are “extremely fast and a talented group.”
The Wild dug down deep, and it was defencewoman Madison Van Will who opened up the scoring in the first period with 3:15 left on the clock.
Henderson then scored mid-way through the second to give the Wild a two-goal lead, before Van Will notched her second goal of the game with 1:48 left in the third to give them a hard-fought 3-0 win.
The Capitals bantam team “definitely made our girls work for their win,” said Foldy.
With their second win of the tournament, the Wild had officially qualified for the gold medal final on Sunday in a rematch against the Capitals midget team, who they had previously tied 0-0.
The game ended up being an incredibly close battle, with no goals being scored in the first period.
In the second, Sharpe got the pass from Walkus and scored at 14:34, and then got another pass from Walkus and converted at 11:35, giving the Wild a 2-0 lead going into the third period.
The Capitals would finally manage to get the puck past goalie Avary Miller with 3:02 left on the clock, but it was too little too late, as the Wild held on to take home a very close 2-1 win.
Fold said the Wild showed fantastic work with their three defence, Miller only let in one goal all weekend, “and there was all around great passing and shooting from the team.”
She added coaches from the other teams have been mentioning how they cannot believe “how strong our Midget girls shots are. New head coach Mike Bell has been focusing on the girls passing and shooting, and it has been paying off.”