Goaltender Danika Ranger working out at the Net Drive Goaltending School on Tuesday. Ranger is vying for a spot on Team Ontario's Under-18 Girls team who will be competing in the Worlds this fall. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
What do you do if you’ve already been named top goaltender and MVP of a national championship, which you’ve won, and you haven’t even left high school?
For Astorville’s Danika Ranger, you keep going.
That’s why Danika left this week for the tryout camp for the Ontario team set to compete in the National Women’s Under 18 camp.
Ranger says the move to try for a shot at another national championship is a natural one.
“I’m one step closer to my goal of making the Olympic team for Canada and to make that tryout is awesome.”
Ranger heads to the tryouts in Huntsville with quite a resume already.
Playing with the Sudbury Lady Wolves last season, she won the Esso Cup National Women’s Midget championship and was named the tournament MVP and top goaltender.
So she feels she’s at least comfortable in taking things to the next level.
“It definitely gave me a lot of confidence going into that final game. Being in that environment in a championship game and playing for a national championship is just an amazing experience and gives you such a confidence.”
“I have been doing a lot of training, a lot of endurance, and goalie schools. A lot of goalie schools,” she stated during an ice session this week at Net Drive Goaltending School which is taking place this week at Pete Palangio arena.
Dan Spence, the former Nipissing Lakers All-star netminder and instructor at Net Drive Goalie School says Ranger is an extremely hard worker who puts in the time on and off the ice.
“We've spent hours fine tuning small aspects of her game and shes only getting better and better. She has a competitive X-factor that will separate her from her peers,” said Spence.
Danika says she’s a focused, more technical goaltender, who’s style is “do anything to stop the puck.”
Her focus was no doubt tested this winter, as she was forced to travel to Sudbury to play, with the North Bay Ice Midget AA Boltz taking a leave of absence, meaning a lot more travel than normal, even for playing at the high level she plays at.
“It was definitely a tough year going through travelling and homework and sleep. But in the end it was a real push to make it to the Nationals, then coming back with a gold medal and a national title is just incredible and it pays for it.”
Her focus now shifts to tryouts, and what she has to do to make that team and take that next step.
“Team Ontario I have to play my game, make sure I can show them what I have that other goalies don’t have and that I deserve to be there.”
Her ultimate goal is playing university hockey, either in the NCAA or the CIS.
But that’s years away.
For now, Danika is trying to make the Team Ontario Under-18 team.
If she does, she won’t have to travel that far, as the games are set for November in Huntsville.
