Aubrey Young is suiting up with the Sudbury “A” North Stars for the very first time this year.
Six years her elder, Roslyn Curtis boasts a litany of ringette memories that will form the basis of reunion chatter with friends for years to come beyond the end of her high-school days next June.
On Sunday in Sudbury, both shared that sense of accomplishment that comes with emerging victorious at the end of tournament play as the Greater Sudbury Ringette Association doled out no less than a dozen championship banners at their largest event (72 teams) in many, many years.
After edging the Sault Ice Hawks by just a single goal twice in double round robin play, the U12 “A” North Stars cranked it up in the final, the locals riding two goal performances from Quinn Gosselin and Maddie Richard to a 6-2 triumph.
As for Miss Young, the 11 year old defender lacked little in the way of candor when asked what prompted her to make the jump from more recreational ringette this winter to the more competitive environment.
“I think I have what it takes to be on the rep team,” she exclaimed with a smile.
“You have to get your position and work on it hard,” added the grade six student at Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School. “And it’s all about picking up your passes. When the ring is coming, I just look at the tip of my stick and I just line it up.”
That said, it is the goals against column that Aubrey Young will defend most fiercely, part of that core group tasked with holding a solid Sault Ste Marie side to just a pair of tallies. This is the position she is made for.
“My coach says I can see the whole ice when I am defense – and I can get back fast,” said Young.
The game was but five minutes old as the North Stars jumped out to a 2-0 lead, the team showcasing the offshoot of pre-game time well spent in the room. “We sing, we cheer, we dance; all sorts of teamwork stuff,” said Young.
“It brings up our energy.”
Energy was not lacking in the least, post-game, in the room of the Guelph U19 A Predators as the very last encounter of the tournament wrapped up at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
After dropping their first two games of the weekend, the Preds rebounded to win their final two round robin games and then took down, in succession, the Gloucester Cumberland Devils in the semis (4-3) and the Sudbury North Stars in the final (5-4), with neither of those teams having tasted defeat at that point in the Sudbury-based Ringette Ontario qualifier.
“To be honest, we’ve been on a bit of a losing streak,” acknowledged Roslyn Curtis, a 17 year old grade 12 student at Centre Wellington District High School, making the trek from her hometown of Elora to Guelph to play competitive ringette now for the past six years.
“We decided this weekend that we were really going to hammer things out and change things up,” Curtis continued. “The first day didn’t go how we planned – so we regrouped, as a team, and talked through things.”
“I think that’s what we do best.”
Guelph started quickly in the gold medal matchup, up 5-2 early in the second and final period before holding off a Sudbury rally as Avery Black paced the Predators’ offense with a four goal outburst.
With plenty of tournaments at their disposal, all within an hour or so drive of Guelph, the road trip north was something of a ground-breaker for a good swath of Curtis and her teammates. “We wanted to try something new, play some teams that we have not played in the past,” she suggested.
“I think most of the team have never been to Sudbury – and we went, as a team, to see the Big Nickel last night. It’s been a great experience.”
“Ringette is obviously a huge part of my life,” added Curtis. “It’s influenced so much of my personality. I’ve always loved the sport.”
And like Aubrey Young and the U12 North Stars, there is a common spark to the fuel that helps fire up these talented ringette stars. “I think what we thrive on is the energy on the bench,” said Curtis. “In the changeroom, we get ourselves hyped as much as we can.”
“And we’re always pumping each other up on the bench, getting our fans involved too.”
The fans were boisterous indeed over the course of the past few days in the nickel city, notably in some of the most dramatic finishes seen in a while.
Noah Seddon netted his fourth goal of the game 90 seconds into overtime as the Markham-Stouffville Bears edged the West Ferris 63s 4-3 to earn the banner in the U19 B bracket.
Samantha Vitale sniped her second goal of the game with roughly ten minutes to play and the Guelph U16 Predators defended their 4-3 lead right through to the final buzzer, trimming the Gloucester Cumberland Devils.
Kallee Clausen snapped a 4-4 tie with less than four minutes to play, lifting the Sudbury U14 “C” North Stars past the Walden Ring Devils while the Ottawa Gee Gees and Guelph Gryphons went to double overtime to settle the U18+ University grouping as Lauren Krauss sent the nation’s capital crew home happy.
The Sudbury U18 “A” North Stars settled for silver as well despite rallying from a 4-0 first period deficit but falling just short in a 4-3 loss to the Cambridge Turbos. The U18 “B” bragging rights would go the way of the Timmins Tornadoes, doubling Sudbury 8-4 as Sydney Dagenais found the back of the net on five separate occasions.
Turns out that almost all of the gold medal games were up for grabs late as the Muskoka Royals doubled Timmins 4-2 in the U12 “B” tete a tete while the U14 “A” Ice Hawks earned some revenge for their younger Lock City counterparts, spotting Sudbury a 4-2 but mounting a comeback that was capped off by the third goal of the game from Gabriella Notwitski in the final few minutes of play in a 5-4 contest.
Finally, in the lowest scoring affair of the day, Sault Ste Marie blanked Nepean 2-0 to earn U14 “B” honours in a five team division as no less than 49 out of town entries enjoyed their time in Sudbury this weekend.
