Ringette teams win gold medals

SUDBURY — The West Ferris Ringette Association sent four entries to the Greater Sudbury ringette invitational tournament this weekend with two teams claiming the top prize in their division.

In Novice action, West Ferris went 2-1 in round robin play against teams from Walden and Valley East.

In the Friday opener, the Bayites easily skated to an 8-1 victory over Walden. Saturday morning, they came away with a 5-2 win against the Valley East White team, but dropped their evening matchup 5-3 to the Valley East Blue team.

Despite the loss, they still earned top spot overall and secured an automatic bye to the championship.

In Sunday’s final, the team come out flying to easily upset Valley East White 6-0 and claim the gold.

Team members: Frederique Belanger, goal, Courtney McColeman, Olivia Parker, Samantha Odorizzi, Venessa Odorizzi, Tiffany Hill, Jessica Lamothe, Lindsay Lebeouf, Mary-Kelly McCormick, Samantha Duquette, Brittany Coughlin and Joshua MacDonald; bench staff: Stephanie Coughlin, Sherry Lebeouf, Susan MacDonald and Louise Odorizzi

The WFRA North Bay Paramedics/CTS Canadian Career College Tween ‘A’ team, a strong contender for the provincial ‘A’ championship, also competed.

Playing up one age group in the junior division, the team, 11-13, posted convincing wins over Walden, 7-0 and Valley East, 5-3, while settling for a 3-3 tie with Sudbury that was complemented by a superior goaltender. Once again, this was enough to earn the ladies an automatic bye to the final.

WFRA dominated the final and defeated Walden 9-2 in the final.

The game was a rematch of Friday’s massacre and the much smaller, much younger, but much more skilled WFRA team come out to play and they did so for the entire 30 minutes.

The NB Paramedics/CTS team will be in action this weekend in the 26th annual Pickering tournament.

This awesome Tween ‘A’ team is composed entirely of local talent with one petite-aged player to round out the roster: Tanesha Hamelin, goal, Sarah Trottier, Meghan Thisdelle, Brianna Belzile, Courtney Whitwell, Jaimie Fitzer-Ross, Drew Elliott, Amanda Storie, Christine Wagner, Janelle Martin and Alexandra Parker; bench staff: Richard Thisdelle, coach; Karen Cook, assistant coach; Margaret Hamelin, trainer; Barry Elliott and Dennis Martin, managers.

For more tween ‘A’ news, please go to http://www.eteamz.com/wfra/index.cfm?subsite=1641835

The open and petite divisions also sent entries to the tournament. Each had a successful tournament despite returning home without hardware.

Despite only posting one win each in the roundrobin, the games were close.

For more information about the WFRA action, visit: www.eteamz.com/wfra

In addition to the tournament results, the WFRA belle “A’ team, defending Ontario provincial ‘A’ champions, had their first Northeastern Ontario playdown game against Timmins. The game was played in Sudbury, but separate to the tournament.

In order to qualify to play in the Ontario championships, teams first must win playdowns within their region.

This year, the Belle ‘A’ team must defeat Timmins. In the first of three games, West Ferris won 5-4.

The scoring was evenly distributed, with five different players finding the net.

Team defence was crucial, especially in the last minute of the game. Holding on by one goal with less than a minute to go, West Ferris suddenly got two penalties and Timmins pulled the goalie to give them a three-player advantage and proceeded to storm the Ferris end.

Goalie Kelsey Lecappelain made a number of key stops and with less than 10 seconds left, Alyssa Lamers was able to steal the ring and clear the zone, preserving the victory.
Their second game will be held in Timmins Jan. 17. If needed, a third game will be in North Bay in late January or early February.