The Edge Mountaineers’ girls prep team went into its home weekend tournament hoping to collect all eight points and extend its divisional first place lead.
The team went undefeated during the four-game homestand, part of the Junior Women’s Hockey League’s West Weekend, but because of two ties it didn’t quite achieve its full goal.
The team tied games against the Balmoral Hall Blazers, of Winnipeg, and the Minnesota Thoroughbreds, with identical 2-2 scores on Oct. 30, after beating the Warner School Warriors 5-2 and the Pacific Steleers, of Richmond, B.C., 3-0, a day earlier.
“We were certainly hoping we would pick up seven or eight points on the weekend, so it wasn’t an overwhelming success, but we’re still at the top of the division,” said Edge girls’ head coach Mario Amantea. “As a coach, you always think you can push harder or do better, but in our last 16 games we have 13 wins, one loss and two ties, so I think right now we’re comfortable where we’re at.”
The Mountaineers remain atop the JWHL’s west division with a 6W-1L-2T league record.
Amantea said his team was excited to display the Edge School’s facilities to some visiting teams for the first time.
“They were pretty blown away by it,” he said. “All the teams coming in were really impressed with the facility, with the school and with the arena.”
The Mountaineers’ next tournament will be in Warner, Nov. 12-13. Amantea said he is glad to have a stretch of games closer to home, in comparison to early season trips to Burlington, Vt., and Boston, Mass.
“The two hour bus ride down to Lethbridge, and staying in Lethbridge, is certainly a lot easier than travelling across the continent and playing five games in three days,” he said.
“We also still have work to do and we can be a whole lot better. We have to be a better first period hockey team. We have a very skilled team, but at times we play just to the level to be competitive. I think we need to push ourselves and strive to have teams needing to catch us.”
