The Edge Mountaineers midget girls’ prep hockey team reached a new milestone this season, qualifying for the gold-medal game March 12 at the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL) championships in Penticton, B.C. While the Mountaineers were pipped to the gold medal by the undefeated Pursuit of Excellence female prep team, head coach Carla MacLeod said making it to the championship game was a great achievement for the Springbank-based Edge School, which first entered a team into the CSSHL female prep division just three seasons ago. “We made the semi-finals the first two years, but [this year], we got ourselves into the last game, so we were pretty excited about that result,” she said. “The girls were able to put together a great team effort, and we benefitted from it.” The Mountaineers entered the playoffs after concluding the regular season in the middle of the pack of the CSSHL, finishing fifth in the private-school league’s eight-team female prep division with a 15-10-3 record. Heading into the week-long playoff tournament, MacLeod said, the team’s goal was to play its best hockey of the year. “We were never overly concerned with the outcome – it was just about getting better,” she said. The Mountaineers’ tournament started off with a loss March 8, when the team fell 2-0 to the Pursuit of Excellence. But the Edge kicked into high gear the following two days, winning 5-3 against the Banff Hockey Academy and overcoming the St. Mary’s Female Prep team in a shootout, following a 2-2 tie. The triumphant shootout over St. Mary’s qualified the Mountaineers for the semi-finals for the third consecutive year. “For us, it wasn’t an easy week by any means – we had to find ways to win – but that’s what I’m most proud of,” MacLeod said. “The girls stuck together through a little bit of adversity and we were able to find ways to have some success.” In the semi-final March 10, the Mountaineers enjoyed its strongest offensive output of the tournament, firing eight shots past Okanagan Female Prep’s goaltender and winning 8-3 to book a place in the gold-medal game against Pursuit of Excellence. Considering the dominance of the Kelowna-based Pursuit of Excellence team – which went 28-0-0 during the regular season and kept that win streak going at playoffs – MacLeod said she was jubilant with the Edge’s showing in the final. Despite being outshot 50-20, the Edge held on defensively until the third period before conceding two goals. “[Pursuit of Excellence] is such a great hockey team,” MacLeod said. “They went undefeated this year, so we knew it was going to be a huge task to try to get that win. “Certainly, we competed with everything we had.” The goaltending prowess of Caroline Gosling played a big part in the Mountaineers’ strong showing, according to MacLeod. Gosling, a Grade-12 student, finished the game with 48 saves from 49 shots. “It was a 2-0 hockey game with an empty net goal [at the end], so I was really proud of our effort,” MacLeod said. While the female prep team enjoyed a successful outing, the Edge School’s AAA midget prep team was eliminated from the tournament earlier than coaches and players hoped. Despite finishing the regular season in third place with a 28-4-4 record, the midget prep team struggled to put wins on the board at the tournament, victorious in just one of its three games in Penticton. “Everyone gave their full effort – nobody was lacking in effort,” said Adin Kennedy, a Grade-12 forward for the Edge. “A couple bounces didn’t go our way, [but] the bench stayed positive and we still helped each other try to get back into the game. It just didn’t work out for us.” A positive note for the midget prep team, according to Kennedy, was the Edge’s final fixture – a 5-0 win March 15 over Delta Hockey Academy. That game followed a 5-3 defeat to OHA Edmonton and a 4-1 setback against Northern Alberta Xtreme earlier in the tournament. “We really came together as a team and it was a good last game together,” Kennedy said. “There were a lot of tears in the dressing room, afterwards.” Other Edge teams that competed at the CSSHL championships included the school’s Elite 15 team, the bantam prep team, the midget varsity team and the bantam varsity team.
