Photo: U12A Sault Ice Hawks 

The U12A Sault Ice Hawks from the Sault Ringette Club started their 2023 exactly where they left off 2022; coming home with gold! Not only have the Sault girls won their third consecutive tournament of the season they have also extended their tournament record for the year to 16-0.

Over the January 6th to 8th weekend the girls were in Whitby playing in the WRA Annual Tournament. They started off the tournament buzzing on Friday with an 8-1 win over the Metcalfe Hornets and a 12-2 win over the Sunderland Stingerz. The Sault team was able to continue this strong start into Saturday where even the weather couldn’t stop them picking up a 7-3 victory over the Timmins Tornadoes and finishing off the round robin with the 10-3 win against the Richmond Hill Lightning.

The perfect round robin record gave them the top seed for the semi-finals where they faced off against the team from Metcalfe who was looking for revenge on their earlier loss. Metcalfe started with a quick goal but the girls fought back and finished the first period with a one goal lead at 3-2. They played a strong second period and skated away with the 6-3 victory and had to wait to see who they would play in the finals later that day. The other semi-final saw the Forest eXtreme defeat the Barrie Blast 13-7.

The finals produced an exciting game of back and forth action between two closely matched opponents. The Sault got off to a quick 2 goal lead but the eXtreme battled back tying it up at 2. The first period ended with a 5-3 lead for the Ice Hawks. The eXtreme didn’t let up but the girls from the Sault held strong and continually countered any attacks and finished the game with the 7-4 victory and the gold medal!

The Sault Ice Hawks next action will see them heading south once again to compete in the GRA Tournament in Guelph February 10 to 12th.

The team wants to give a huge shoutout and thanks to all of their sponsors who have supported them for this year!

The U12A Sault Ice Hawks for this tournament were comprised of Brooklyn Adams, Erika Bernardo, Maelle Brown, Mikayla Farelli, Jessica Fasanello, Avery Fierro-Wood, Cameron Galizia, Alyvia Hull, Makensy Jarrell, Arianna Nowitski, Gabriella Nowitski, Reese O’Neil, Madison Selig, Mya Sloss, Sarah Sonoc and Leah Vaughan. On this tournament they were supported by Chelsea Clingen (head coach), Gabrielle Baril, Marley Coccimiglio, Brad Nowitski, Curt O’Neil, Gannon Vaughan (assistant coaches), Matt Jarrell (skating coach), Brigitte Vaughan (trainer), and Tammy Bernardo (manager).

Source: U12A Sault Ice Hawks