The 100 Mile House U18 Girls Hockey Team finished the season with a victory Sunday but fell short of winning the playoffs.
The girls competed in a round-robin tournament in Lumby last weekend against four other teams: two from Kelowna and one each from Kamloops and Lumby. Coach Wade Balbirnie said the girls played three games, losing to Kelowna Team One 2-1 and Lumby 7-0 on Saturday. They beat Kelowna Team Two 2-1 on Sunday.
“We lost control, so we had to rely on other teams beating other teams and it didn’t go that way, so we ended up finishing third,” Balbirnie said. “The girls had fun, it was entertaining and overall it really went well for them. Everybody played hard and even when we lost 7-0, nobody gave up.”
Balbirnie said the 100 Mile girls outplayed Kelowna in their first game, with Megan Balbirnie scoring a goal early in the third period. However, Kelowna rallied and pulled off two goals late in the period, putting 100 Mile in a precarious place early in the playoffs.
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Lumby took advantage of the situation later that day, he added. While the girls played a good game against the host team, Balbirnie said a shooting spree in the last nine minutes sunk any hope of them tying the game. Lumby went on to win the tournament in the finals the next day, besting Kelowna Team One.
On Sunday, the 100 Mile girls got their revenge when they beat the second Kelowna team handily, with goals scored by Dana Quintal and Megan Balbirnie. Coach Balbirnie got all the graduating girls on the ice together during the last shift, which he said was a special way to end the season.
“We finished our last game with a win, which was nice, and the graduate girls had a good send off and we got some good team pictures,” Balbirnie said.
Balbirnie encourages any girls interested in joining the team next year to sign up by calling the 100 Mile and District Minor Hockey Association at 250-395-4344 at the end of August.
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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