The Female Mustangs might not have secured a win on their last road trip, but they won the respect of at least one team.
“In the quarterfinals the coach from the other team asked the tournament officials to give their MVP award to our whole team,” said Mustangs head coach Louis Bouchard. “They said they’ve never seen a team fight so hard and never give up.”
Not for a lack of trying, the Yukon rep team went winless at the 37th annual Nepean Girls Hockey Association’s Winter Tournament, Feb. 3-5 in the Ottawa area.
It didn’t go, “as well as we were hoping,” said Bouchard. “It’s always hard for us when we register for a tournament Outside because it’s hard to figure out which tier to register in. So we registered in midget AA thinking that would be the equivalent to Tier 2 but it was the strongest competition we’ve ever faced.”
The Mustangs finished with their most lopsided score, losing 7-0 to the Rochester Edge in the quarterfinal. The Edge, which was the team to hand their MVP honour to the Mustangs, went on to take gold.
Though it was the most cockeyed of thier scores, it was their strongest game, said Bouchard, and defenceman Destiny Taylor was named the Mustangs’ MVP.
“We were pushing a lot more, we were creating scoring chances, we just couldn’t beat their goalie,” said Bouchard. “We put over 25 shots on net, we just couldn’t get it behind her.”
The Mustangs opened the trip — after a redeye flight into the capital — with a 3-0 loss to the North Simcoe Capitals, allowing two power play goals. Mustangs MVP honours went to defenceman Samantha McLeod.
They then fell 5-0 to the Rochester Edge in the two teams’ first game. Mustangs winger Arnica Bulmer of Dawson was named MVP.
The Mustangs finished the round robin with a 3-0 loss to the home team Nepean Wildcats. MVP honours for the Mustangs went to centre Cayman Oestreich.
This past weekend wasn’t the first time the Female Mustangs traveled to Ontario. The team played a tournament in Niagara Falls in 2014. They’re also registered for the women’s division of the Sourdough Rendezvous Hockey Tournament this month in Whitehorse.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com