The Campbell River Novice Hurricanes had a great showing at the Richmond Ice Classic Female Hockey Tournament last weekend.
The team, comprised of 5-to-9 year-old girls, worked hard in every game against some big city opposition.
The Hurricanes were full of excitement Friday afternoon as this was the first away tournament for many of them. In their opening game, they met the home team, the Richmond Ravens. The game was full of energy and back-and-forth play.
Quinn Smits opened the scoring in the first when she deked out a few Richmond players before putting the puck in the net. However, Richmond came back to tie it and this is how the rest of the game would go. Goaltender McKenna Harris came up with a big stick save in the dying minutes of the game but Richmond got the better of the Campbell River team with a go-ahead goal with only 1:24 remaining on the clock and 4-3 would be the final tally.
Saturday morning the determined Hurricanes came to play against the Vancouver Angels. Smits again opened the scoring with another end-to-end rush before raising the puck over the goalie’s pads.
The Angels soon came back to tie it up. Smits then scored her second with a wrap-around goal after collecting her own rebound. Raeya Mackie made some terrific defensive plays to keep the Hurricanes ahead. Vancouver again tied it up but Akira Isaac soon sprung Whalen on a break-away and she most certainly had the finish and the score was 3-2 after the first frame.
Harris made a tremendous glove save that had the crowd talking at the beginning of the second period. Madison “Mad Dog” Batch made several good defensive plays at the blue line and Mackie fed Smits with a pass that would end in another goal and the hat trick. The final score was 5-4 Hurricanes.
In Saturday afternoon’s game versus the North Shore Avalanche, Batch came out with some good defensive plays in front of the net before the puck ended up in the North Shore zone and a scramble in front of the net resulted in a game opening goal by Smits. Harris made another fantastic break-away save. Kaylie Riecker hustled for the puck and sent a beautiful pass up the ice to Smits for a break-away and five-hole goal to make it 2-0 after the first. The Avalanche would get one back early in the second. Mackie, one of the youngest Hurricane members did not show it by putting the puck in the net after a scramble in front and then soon doing the same again after deking out an opposing player. The score was 4-1 after two periods. Olivia Laidlaw, determined to keep the lead, stripped the puck off a couple of Avalanche players and soon after, Speck fed Whalen the puck as she broke free to make the tally 5-1. Harris came up with another big save with 3:15 remaining and 5-1 in favor of the Hurricanes would be the final.
In the Hurricanes’ final game, they faced the Seattle Ice Hawks, who out-sized the Hurricanes by an obvious amount. Seattle scored 30 seconds in and not too long after buried another one. However, speedy Isaac broke away from the pack and scored after an assist from Riecker. Soon after, Pollitt sent Smits on a break-away to tie the game at two. Unfortunately, Seattle answered back. Harris made an incredible pad save near the end of the first and the score was 3-2 Ice Hawks at the buzzer. Seattle kept on firing the puck in the second period and the score was 6-2. However, Smits scored another beauty on a break-away and Whalen banged in a loose puck soon after to close the gap to 6-4. Seattle answered back one more time in the second period to end it at 7-4. Speck and Laidlaw continued to work hard to try and clear the puck out of the Hurricanes’ zone, but Seattle scored a couple more before Smits was able to break-away one last time to make the score 9-5. Seattle would put one more in before the buzzer and the final tally was 10-5.
The Hurricanes thank their coaches Dennis Bellevance, Cory Batch and Andrew Riecker; their managers Jami Harris and Heather Shiells and the Midget Hurricanes that helped out throughout the year. The team had a fantastic season and would like to encourage other girls to get involved in the fantastic sport of hockey.