Junior female hockey team achieves goal at Arctic Games

No matter what happens in the next two games, the Yukon's junior female hockey team has already accomplished its goal for the Arctic Winter Games.

No matter what happens in the next two games, the Yukon’s junior female hockey team has already accomplished its goal for the Arctic Winter Games.

A victory over Nunavut on Monday during the team’s opening day contest has helped the Yukon Squad officially qualify for the semi-finals, which will be held later tonight.

The qualification into the semi-finals ensures that the Yukon girl’s hockey team will at least equal its performance at the previous Arctic Winter Games when the squad finished in fourth place.

“I am very pleased with how the tournament is going,“ said Cheryl Rivest, co-coach of the Yukon junior female team.

“The experienced girls are doing a really good job of encouraging the younger girls and bringing them along.“

Heading into this year’s AWG, the junior female squad didn’t have quite as much experience as the previous team did in 2006. Out of the 17 players competing at the Games, there are only five returning players.

The Yukon’s junior female team began the tournament against Nunavut on Monday.

In one of the more physical games of the round robin, Team Yukon played outstanding, scoring an impressive four goals and limiting Nunavut to just one in the victory.

The win was special not only because it was the first game of the tournament for the girls, but also because it involved a total team effort with both experienced and new players contributing.

Rivest said there was a real benefit to getting the first victory.

“I think it is the realization that you can play with another team,“ she said.

“It is just very empowering to know when you get out on the ice that you can play hockey with another team because we didn’t come up against any competition before this and a lot of these girls haven’t played against another female team this year as well.

They have always been playing against the boys.“

The team from Nunavut was also their closest competition at the Games and have to deal with some of the same challenges faced by Yukon hockey club.

That win helped build some confidence for their next match, which was later that night against the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.).

In the evening game the Yukon girls just couldn’t continue the momentum from the previous contest.

The N.W.T. also took advantage of the fact that it was their first game of the day and ended up winning 7-1 to drop the Yukon girls’ record to 1-1.

On Tuesday, the Yukon squad faced off against a very skilled and fast Northern Alberta team.

The Yukoners had trouble throughout the whole game getting the puck out of their own zone and ended up losing the game by a score of 9-0.

Although Team Yukon had difficulty keeping pace with the Albertans, the group never game up and played very hard right up until the end of the final period.

Team Yukon’s final round robin contest was against Alaska, who is currently in top spot in the pool.

This game was similar to their previous outing against Northern Alberta, where the team had trouble keeping pace with their older and more experienced opponents. 

The final score was 10-0, but once again the Yukon girls showed their determination and played an enthusiastic style of hockey the whole way through.

The loss dropped Team Yukon’s record to 1-3. After Nunavut failed to register a victory, Team Yukon placed fourth in the standings and will face off against first-placed Alaska in the semi-finals.

Rivest said she was impressed with her team’s performance in the round robin. 

“I am impressed with just the dogged determination of some of these girls, especially the younger ones,“ she said.

“They are out on the ice and just giving it their all and they just want to play hockey, so I have been impressed with that.

The girls are a really great bunch of girls, they seem to be getting along quite well, they are encouraging each other and they are having fun.“

She said it is an accomplishment to be playing in the semi finals.

“There is nothing worse than coming to a tournament and you are done in three or four games, so we are going to get in six games of hockey and it is some good experience for the younger girls,“ Rivest said.

“So two years from now they will come back and go ‘okay, I know what this is all about,‘ and they will be able to mentor some of the younger girls that they are playing with.“

Rivest said it will be a success whether the team wins tomorrow or not.

“It is important when you go to one of these things that it is a positive experience for everybody,“ she said.

“They are skating their hearts out, they are playing hard and importantly they are staying positive and cheering hard.

I think we are a little bit of the underdogs at this point, so they are a great bunch of girls and I hope that they think that of themselves at the end of this.

That it was a good experience and that they played well.

They play with an incredible amount of heart and they cheer with an incredible amount of heart and really I think that is what it is all about.“