The seventh annual Whitehorse Women’s Hockey Jamboree wrapped up with two very different games: one a bit of a blowout, the other a tight battle for gold.
In the end, Bitches Be Gretzky took first with a 2-1 win over Toews & Confused in the final on Saturday at Takhini Arena.
Only one of the other nine games at the jamboree, hosted by the Whitehorse Women’s Hockey Association, ended in a one-goal score.
“It was fun. It was a nice hard, fast game,” said Bitches Be Gretzky captain Kylie Bird.
“We all played well together. Good pressure. We didn’t give up.”
The Gretzky squad drew first blood in the final. Midway through the first their captain stormed up the middle and rammed a shot past Toews goalie Abbie Turner from point blank range.
It wasn’t until halfway through the third the Toews crew got on the board when Coralie Ullyett buried a cross-ice pass from Erin Bochrane on a two-on-one rush.
With just seven minutes left in regulation, Megan Seiling roofed the puck in the top of the Toews net on a breakaway. Teammate Georgie Townrow picked up an assist on the play. Gretzky goalie Stacy Bowden got the win.
Toews & Confused reached the final undefeated having beaten the Gretzky team 3-1 in the round robin.
The jamboree, in which teams are assembled with players from the Whitehorse Women’s Hockey League as well as Outside players, featured four teams of 13 players this year. In addition to Whitehorse players were six from Dease Lake, B.C. and two from Haines Junction.
“It’s the same players that play in the league, but we have players from the communities come out and we mix them all up and we play with different people. So that makes it fun,” said Bird.
The third place game, which also featured two awesomely named teams, wasn’t as close.
Moves Like Jagr defeated Booby Orr 9-2 in it.
“Anybody can play in this jamboree, which is really nice,” said Moves Like Jagr captain Cheryl Rivest. “People who have decided to do other things for this hockey season, whether it’s broomball or skiing or whatever, they can come back just pay the insurance and play this weekend.
“You get to play with a whole lot of people, not just everybody you play with in the league. It mixes things up a bit and it’s fun.”
Despite only having 10 players in the final, Moves Like Jagr moved out to a 4-0 lead by the end of first period and scored five more in the second for a 9-1 lead.
Nikki Belanger racked up four goals and an assist, Stephanie Hedley had two goals and two assists, Chase Blodgett had two goals and Rivest a goal and two assists in the game.
Ashtyn Sandulak scored the first one for Booby Orr and Lynsey Keaton the second.
“The level is picking up in women’s hockey,” added Rivest. “When the league first got rolling again after many years it was more beginner-intermediate players. Now we’re seeing players coming out who played university level in the league. What that does is brings the whole level of the league up.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com