Total teamwork told the tale at the Okotoks Female Hockey Classic.
The Bantam A Oilers went undefeated allowing just one goal against in four games to power their way to the gold medal on Sunday to highlight 14 hometown squads at the 12th annual Okotoks Female Hockey Classic tournament.
“It was just recognizing that we just had to give it our all,” said Oilers alternate captain Ella Glubish. “And to give it 110, that we win and lose as a team.”
Captain Sabrina Allen echoed the sentiment.
“Working together as a team,” Allen said. “And playing our hardest and giving it all we’ve got.”
The Oilers blanked Regina 2-0 in the gold medal game, outshooting the visitors by a 27-9 count in the contest.
“I think we just supported each other down low,” Glubish said. “And we just continuously fore-checked really hard so we spent a lot of time in the offensive zone. We broke out quickly and played together.”
Goaltender Katie Frost earned the nickname ‘Flawless’ for the Oilers and she lived up to the billing and then some over the three-day weekend.
Frost allowed just one goal in four games, posting three shutouts while the offence took care of business with 13 tallies at the other end of the ice.
“She means everything really,” said Oilers forward Ava Dease, who skated on a line with Allen and alternate captain MacKenzie Aasen. “She’s our goalie and she’s flawless.”
The Oilers finished first in pool play with a 6-0 win over Lethbridge, 2-0 triumph over Edmonton and 3-1 victory over Regina.
The Midget A final went down to the wire with Okotoks and Irma renewing their rivalry.
Irma took the gold medal game 3-2 in a shootout after a seesaw affair at Pason Centennial Arena.
Olya Klepacheva and Sawyer Harding scored for the silver medallist Okotoks.
The Oilers finished 2-1 in the round-robin portion, earning victories over St. Albert and Regina.
In Midget B, Okotoks Gold and Okotoks Green were just outside the medal picture,
finishing third and fourth with records of 1-0-2 for Gold and 1-2 for Green.
The Bantam B standings had Okotoks Green skate to a 1-2 mark and Okotoks Gold finish with a record of 0-2-1.
Okotoks was fit to be tied in the Peewee 1 division, skating to three draws with Edmonton, St. Albert and Calgary. Okotoks had a win, loss and tie in the Peewee 2 division while in Peewee 3 both Okotoks Green and Okotoks Gold had 0-3 records.
In Atom 1, Okotoks skated to 2-2 record and finished with the silver medal after Calgary took the gold medal game by a 2-1 count.
It was a similar script in Atom 2 with Okotoks earning the silver medal with the strong Whitehorse team bringing the gold medal back to the Yukon.
For more information on the Okotoks Female Hockey Classic go to okotoksfemalehockey.com
