Epic: adjective. Spectacular; very impressive; awesome.
Team Alberta wrapped up Hockey Canada’s national U18 female tournament in a bronze-medal game for the ages Nov. 10 at Calgary’s Markin MacPhail Centre, edging Quebec 6-5 in overtime.
Cochrane’s Daria O’Neill and Hannah Olenyk, and Bearspaw’s Channia Alexander, were all part of Alberta’s first-ever national U18 female hockey medal at the five-day tourney where they left it all on the ice. The players were as exhausted as elated by the final buzzer.
“Right from the get-go, we just came together as a close-knit team,” O’Neill, a Grade 11 defenceman with Edge School, said immediately following the game. She wore the alternate captain’s “A” on her sweater for Team Alberta and had an assist in the tourney. “Everyone bought in right away, so we knew that whatever happened we were going to battle and get that medal.”
Down 3-2 to start the third period, Quebec scored to make it 4-2. Alberta countered with a pair, but the arena announcer hadn’t finished announcing Shae Labbe’s tying goal when Quebec’s Alexandra Labelle scored with five minutes left, making it 5-4 for la belle province.
It wasn’t looking good with Alberta killing a penalty in the final three minutes of the third, but Amy Boucher scored short-handed at 17:14 to send it to overtime. Boucher also canned the OT winner.
“We went in there and we treated it like a gold-medal game,” said Olenyk, a 17-year-old forward with the Highwood Raiders Midget AAA girls hockey team who scored once at the tourney. “Doesn’t matter what colour the medal is. We came together as a family. We earned it. We worked hard right to the end. We never lost hope at all.
“We had each other’s backs.”
The medal-winning performance was bittersweet for Olenyk, in her third and final year with Alberta’s U18 female team, which finished seventh at the previous two national tournaments.
“I’m pretty sad,” she admitted. “I’m so happy to share this experience with the girls. I’m going to miss them so much.”
But there’s plenty of elite hockey on the horizon for Olenyk, who has committed to play for the University of Alberta Pandas next season and can try out for Team Canada’s U22 women’s team in her second year at U of A.
Bearspaw’s Alexander, who also plays defence at Edge, brought her hard hat to the rink for every game in her second national tournament with Team Alberta U18. Including the bronze-medal game, Alberta went 4-1 at the tournament, losing only to silver-medallist Ontario Blue 3-1 in a semifinal.
“Hard work,” Alexander said when asked about her contribution to the medal-winning effort. “Every time we went in the locker room, our coach was just telling us work hard. Every time I stepped on the ice, I didn’t want to take a shift off. Just push and battle and make sure we get the bronze medal.”
Head coach Mikko Makela, a former National Hockey League star and Team Finland Olympian who currently coaches at Warner Hockey School outside Lethbridge, summed it up: “I don’t think there were too many people who believed we were going to achieve what we did. That tells you a lot about the character and the team we have. It was awesome. Obviously, we made some history in Alberta female hockey today that we have to be very proud of. And we are.
“It’s an incredible feeling.”
Epic.
