No one rings in the New Year quite like the Rocky Mountain Raiders. For the second straight Jan.
No one rings in the New Year quite like the Rocky Mountain Raiders.
For the second straight Jan. 1 the Raiders skated to the Mac’s Midget Tournament Cup after dispatching the Prince Albert Bears 6-2 at the Saddledome to become the first female team to repeat in a decade.
“Like everybody says it’s always hard to repeat and it truly is,” said Raiders head coach Paul Pozzi. “We had a bit of an advantage because we’ve been here before, we know what the Saddledome is like, the ice is a little bit slower, it’s hot in here so we make sure they hydrate properly.”
All of the tricks of the trade and an experienced lineup of graduating players paved the way for a comfortable gold medal triumph.
“A lot of us were pretty pumped and it was our second time here so we wanted to defend it,” said Raiders forward Mary McDonald, the Mac’s Tournament MVP. “This year it meant a lot more because a lot of us are third-year and really dug deep to try and win.”
Those plans went off-kilter in the early going of the final.
Bears forward Camryn Amundson got the underdogs on the board on their first shot of the game, putting a rebound past Raiders netminder Gabriella Durante just 78 seconds into the final.
“That has kind of been our thing, we seem to give up that first goal,” Pozzi added. “That seems to be the kick in the pants we need to turn it up.”
Undaunted, the Raiders charged forward and took over the opening frame and soon found themselves even when blueliner Isabella Pozzi’s shot trickled into the net. Rocky Mountain’s Kara Kondrat then added her first of two on the afternoon from behind the net after teammate Emma Borbandy made a desperate play to keep the puck in the zone.
A quiet middle frame got busy in a hurry when Chloe Puddifant and Okotokian Josie McLeod scored 18 seconds apart to increase the lead to 4-1.
“We huddled up and were thinking insurance goal, it was definitely a really exciting moment,” McLeod said. “I shot the puck and it had a bunch of rebounds and I got to score that goal.
“We were in a good position and feeling confident, but you can’t take your foot off the pedal.”
They didn’t.
Kondrat added her second of the game, finishing off a give-and-go to perfection with Puddifant with 36 seconds left in the period as the Raiders went into the dressing room with a 5-1 advantage.
Prince Albert cut into the lead early in the final stanza only to have Rocky Mountain sniper Nicole Fry add a late insurance marker to round out the victory by a four-goal margin.
A far cry from one year prior when the Raiders eked out an overtime victory in the Mac’s final.
“It was a little more tough to stay focused, but we knew we had a goal when we arrived. We knew we had to play D first, not let them score any,” said Raiders captain Breanne Trotter. “Our coach (Pozzi) always says offence wins games, defence wins championships.
“It means a lot because this is my last year and we got to finish it with a bang.”
The captain’s younger sister Sydney, a rookie blueliner with the Raiders, missed the tournament with a broken leg.
She remained a part of the team and was on crutches on the Saddledome ice celebrating with her peers.
“She’s a good sport,” Breanne said. “She’s not down that she can’t play, she’s supporting everyone.”
McLeod went from supporting her siblings to being thrust into the action.
She became the third member of her family to play in the Mac’s, sister Amanda affiliated with the Raiders and brother Mark skated with the then UFA Bisons, and first to play in and win the final.
“It’s definitely a big deal,” she said. “It’s such a local event, everyone takes so much pride in it and my family has all played. It was pretty cool to be in the Saddledome as the only one in the fam to get there.”
The Raiders were undefeated in the tournament, posting a 4-0 record in round-robin before blanking Delta Academy 3-0 in the semifinal. All told, Rocky Mountain outscored its opposition by a 29-5 margin in its six games.
Finalists for three years running, the Raiders remain the only host team to have won the Mac’s in the female division and are the first repeat winners since Swift Current in 2008.
“This shows we’re a strong association,” Pozzi said. “The (Okotoks Oilers Athletic Association) supports us from the Junior A team to triple-A midget and right down to the grassroots. They’ve been good to me, good to the girls. It’s a great association and Okotoks is a hockeytown.”
Mac’s hardware
The top team in the tournament had its fingerprints all over the Mac’s Midget awards.
On top of being named Tournament MVP, McDonald was named to the Mac’s First All-Star Team, named Top Forward and was recognized as Top Plus-Minus player.
McDonald, Puddifant and Kondrat were a dominant trio all tournament.
“I think it was my teammates, we clicked really well and I had a lot of support from them,” McDonald said. “They were always there wherever the puck was. We always talk about what we’re going to do before we go on the ice, have the plays set-up so it makes it easy.”
Puddifant also earned First All-Star Team honours. Kondrat, the Playoff MVP, was Top Scorer and made the Second All-Star Team along with Pozzi.
Kondrat, a third-year Raider, has fought through the injury bug all season prior to her star turn in the event.
“We didn’t see (Kondrat) a lot in the first half of the season because she had a high ankle sprain and it’s one of those injuries that wouldn’t heal,” Pozzi said. “For her to keep her confidence and come back to play strong the way that she did, she can be a very dominant player. She’s big, strong and has a bit of a mean-streak and she can score. She’s an ultimate power forward.”
Rounding out the awards, centre Laura Jardin earned one of two Mac’s Midget Scholarship handed out.
