This hockey experience of a lifetime didn’t come with the Hollywood ending.
Millarville’s Malia Schneider and Team Canada’s gold medal hopes were put on ice at the 2016 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) U18 Women’s World Championship on Friday night in a dramatic sudden-death overtime loss to the rival Americans.
“It was an absolutely amazing experience. Everything about it,” she said. “The fans, the quality of hockey made it amazing. I’ve never played in front of such a big crowd. In the gold medal game we had over 5,000 people there and that’s not including all the people watching online and on TV.”
Fans in St. Catharines, Ontario were treated to another classic pitting the North American rivals.
Canada jumped out to a two-goal lead through Jamie Bourbonnais and Daryl Watts before Americans Alex Woken and Natalie Snodgrass replied to force sudden-death overtime in the championship game on Jan. 15. Snodgrass then added the championship winner on a rebound 1:47 into the extra-session.
“Because we finished so strong in the third we went in with a lot of confidence,” added Schneider, an alternate captain for Canada. “I felt that we did play with a ton of confidence in overtime. They just got a really good bounce towards them.”
“The only word I can find for it is heartbreaking. It’s extremely hard, but that will fuel us for when we play them again in the next tournament.”
The Canucks advanced to the gold medal game by virtue of a 2-1 record in round-robin and semifinal triumph. The hosts opened the tournament in slipping past Russia by a 5-2 score before putting up its most comprehensive victory of the tournament.
The 17-year-old got on the scoreboard in Canada’s second victory of the tournament in an 11-0 rout over Czech Republic. Schneider potted the 11th marker in the final frame for some extra insurance.
“Our centre won the draw clean, Victoria Howran passed it back to me and Kayla Friesen set up the perfect screen. I just had to put it in the net,” Schneider said. “It was the 11th goal so we were trying to stay calm, but the fans cheered just as loud for our 11th as for the first which made it extremely exciting.”
Canada then lost 4-1 to the Americans in round-robin to set up a crossover game with the Russians for the spot in the final. The red-and-white blanked the Russians again, this time by a 4-0 count.
“I was more nervous to play U.S. in the round-robin game than I was for the gold game,” she said. “We had a mental trainer, she really helped us with the distraction part of it. The fans, the TV and media, which I think helped a ton.”
Schneider, a Grade 11 student at Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy in Kelowna, finished the tournament with one goal in five games.
She can add world championship silver to an assortment of hockey medals including World School Sport Challenge gold, Alberta Winter Games gold, Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League gold and Canada Winter Games bronze.
This one might just stand out above the rest.
“Before we received our silver medal, even though we lost we all put our arms around each other standing on the blueline,” she said. “Someone in the crowd yelled out ‘we love you Canada, you’re a class act Canada’. I felt like that really touched me.
“It just proved how much this game means to Canada and how everyone supports us win or lose.”
