It’ll be the Bears, Rush, Hounds, Lightning, Remparts and Selects competing for Canada’s National Women’s U18 Club Championship
The Road to the Esso Cup has come to a close.
The Notre Dame Hounds and Northern Selects secured the final two spots on
the weekend; the Hounds finished a two-game sweep of the Westman Wildcats
to claim the West Region title, while the Selects edged the EDZA West Reds
2-1 in the Atlantic Region final.
They will join the Prince Albert Bears (Host), Fraser Valley Rush
(Pacific), Durham West Lightning (Ontario) and Remparts du Richelieu
(Quebec) at Canada’s National Women’s U18 Club Championship, which begins
May 16 in Okotoks, Alta.
Here’s a quick look at all six teams that will compete for a national
title.
HOST TEAM – PRINCE ALBERT BEARS
After more than two years of waiting, it’s finally time for the Bears to
play host to the country’s top teams. Except they’ll be doing it 765
kilometres from home. Prince Albert hit a few speedbumps on the way to the
Esso Cup, finishing with a 10-15-5 record in the Saskatchewan Female U18AAA Hockey League before getting swept by the Saskatoon Stars in the
opening round of the playoffs.
The Bears are making their second appearance at the Esso Cup; they won
SFU18AAAHL and West Region championships in 2017 before going 2-3 in the
preliminary round in Morden, Man., and narrowly missing out on the
semifinals.
ATLANTIC REGION – NORTHERN SELECTS
The Selects have been dominant from start to finish, losing just one of 18
regular-season games in the Maritime Major Female Hockey League before
sweeping East Hants and Halifax to win the MMFHL title. They then romped
through the Atlantic tournament, posting a plus-34 goal differential (36-2)
in a 4-0 preliminary round before Bree MacPherson’s third-period goal beat
the Reds and punched their ticket to Okotoks.
It’s a second trip in three Esso Cups for the Selects, who were the
Atlantic reps in 2018 when Bridgewater,…