It was a shot at the championship but the Female Midget AAA Kootenay Wildcats fell short to the league dominating Thompson-Okanagan Rockets – but not without a fight.
The girls, including Nakusp’s own Shea Weighill and Jessica Carter, were the underdogs going into the final playoff round. They managed to pull a major upset their first round when they swept the Fraser Valley Phantoms, and they were confident they stood a chance against the Rockets.
In the end the girls took the Rockets for all they had, but they were shut down in the final game of the series 3–2.
The Wildcats won the first round of the championship series 3-1 and lost the second game 3-2. The final game was for the league championship and the winner moves on to the Female Pacific Midget Regional Championship hosted in Alberta this year.
The championship was held in Kelowna this year ending on March 27.
However, getting there is half the battle.
This past weekend in Pitt Meadows, the Wildcats took on the Fraser Valley Phantom in a best-of-three BC Female Midget AAA semi-final series. The Wildcats came into the series as the third seeded team and finished 16 points behind the second place Phantoms.
Wearing the underdog tag, the Wildcats surprised the powerful Phantom squad with an opening 3-2 overtime win and clinched the series with a gritty 2-1 victory in game two.
“I don’t think any team likes to play us,” Wildcats coach Mario DiBella said. “We’re a hard working team, we play a physical brand of female hockey and we don’t ever give up. Those kinds of teams are hard to play against because you don’t get to take a shift off during the game.”
The Wildcats are a regional team based in Nelson, but draws female players from all over the East and West Kootenay including Nakusp.
In the Friday night game Invermere’s Kiana Strand opened the scoring in the first period, but the Phantom came storming back to gain a 2-1 lead by midway through the third period. Late in the third period the Wildcats kept clawing and with six minutes left in regulation, star forward Daley Oddy notched the equalizer.
With Castlegar’s Kayla Keraiff holding down the fort in the Wildcats net, six minutes into the first overtime the Wildcats bench erupted when Oddy broke to the net and roofed a backhand into the Phantom goal.
“It was euphoria,” DiBella said of the scene after Oddy’s winner. “As much as you try to prepare them mentally and tell them that they are as good as the team that they’re playing, they don’t realize it until they see what the end result is.”
The Wildcats finished the regular season with a 9-14-4 record compared to the Phantom’s 17-7-4 campaign. Despite a 1-3-2 regular season record against their Lower Mainland foes, the Wildcats held the edge in play over both games.
“When you start believing in what it is you do with the systems, that attitude and environment grows and self perpetuates,” DiBella explained. “At times with girls it takes time and confidence for them to buy into systems and realize the success that they seek because it’s not always evident right from the start.”
In Saturday’s second game the Wildcats jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead with goals from Castlegar’s Hailey McLean and Oddy. Though the Phantom got one back, the Kootenay squad held off the desperate Fraser Valley attack to preserve the 2-1 win and earn a spot in the championship series.
“They were definitely the hardest working team on the weekend and deserved both wins,” said DiBella.