It began in November back at their own Rep Classic and the dominance didn’t stop for the Richmond Ravens until they had collected every possible banner in B.C. Pee Wee girls hockey.
The Ravens capped a remarkable season with a perfect five game run at the provincial championships in Kamloops, including a 4-1 win over North Shore in the gold medal game. Along the way, Richmond captured the Pacific Coast regular season banner with a unbeaten 16-0-1 record, then added the PCAHA playoff title too with seven more wins, including a 2-1 triumph over Langley in the title game.
Throw in the provincial results and the Ravens’ record is an astonishing 28-0-1.
Head coach Mitch Ward’s roster was loaded with second-year players and they certainly made the most of their final opportunity for glory at the Pee Wee level.
“This is a terrific group of girls,” said Ward. “The key to our success all season is our depth and the ability to wear our opponents down.”
Even with such a dominating record, the road to glory was hardly a cake walk. The PCAHA featured three other quality teams — Langley, Tri-Cities and North Shore.
The provincial format saw the six teams play each other once then the top two meet in the championship game four days later.
Richmond rolled to a 7-0 win over Prince George then outlasted Tri-Cities 3-1. The locals toppled Kelowna 5-0, before a 3-1 win against Langley clinched a spot in the final.
The Ravens squared off on Wednesday morning against North Shore in their final round-robin with both teams knowing they would be meeting later that evening in the gold medal game. Richmond again won by a 3-1 score to set the stage for the final.
“We held back a few things with shorter shifts and not showing them our power play which has been really producing of late,” said Ward of the strategy for the first North Shore game. “The way the (PCAHA) playoff schedule worked out, we hadn’t faced them (since January) and they had improved quite a bit.
“We knew the Tri-Cities game was a big game to be in the top two at the end. They played us very hard. We then had an opportunity to knock out Langley altogether and the girls were fired up. We scored on the first shift of the game and it really set the tone.”
The Ravens roster includes: Janaka Shahi, Hope Chan, Emily Dragicevic, Kate Eng, Ella Hurst, Clarie Kerr, Emma Lee, Lauren MacKay, Chloe Maher, Olivia Northrup, Jessi Soon, Ashley Specht, Francesca Trahan, Sophia Uppal, Tamryn Ward and Elise Wust.
Rounding out the coaching staff are assistants: Larry Hurst, Brendan Wust and Milan Dragicevic. The manager is Melanie McKay.
