The Barrhead Agrena was the site for the 2011 Midget ‘B’ Female Provincial Finals, and the Barrhead Blackhawks were the host team.
Champions from 10 zones descended on Barrhead to duke it out for the provincial title. The Westaskiwin Co-op Country Junction team went undefeated all tournament to capture the title.
The Blackhawks finished with one point through four games, and did not make it out of the round-robin stage.
“They came out to play hard the whole tournament, but could only manage to play for 20 minutes instead of all 60,” said interim coach Kyle Knapp.
In their opening game on March 24, the Blackhawks tied the Olds Renegades 3-3. The squad from Barrhead came out strong in the first period with a 2-1 lead. However, for the rest of the game, the girls seemed to be playing catch up.
Game 2 had the Blackhawks pitted against the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in an early game on March 25. The Blackhawks came out strong, and were nose to nose with the Oil Barons for the first period.
The Oil Barons were first to find the back of net during the tight-checking second period. Neither team gave each other any room to form a decent attack.
“They kind of gave up when they got scored against,” said Knapp.
It was the third period that was the difference.
The Oil Barons found the back of the net three times, extending their lead to 4-0.
Later on that evening, the girls from Barrhead faced off against Westaskiwin, and were easily handled 13-1 by the eventual provincial champs.
“I think the girls just ran out of gas. It was a lot of games over a short amount of time,” said Knapp.
On March 26, the Blackhawks travelled to the Westlock Jubilee Arena for their final game of the round robin, versus the Edmonton Triple Threat. By this point, a win wasn’t good enough to get the Blackhawks into the final, as the top two teams from Pool A and Pool B made the semi finals. The Blackhawks lost 6-2.
“The girls always came with a positive attitude all weekend. For some of the players it was their first time at provincials, and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience,” said Knapp.
The top three scorers through four games for the Blackhawks were: Stephanie Truckey (2 pts.), Jamie Chomay (2 pts.) and Kelsey Chamzuk (2 pts.).
“I was only with the team for three months, but I saw them drastically improve. I got to know them really well, and it was a really enjoyable experience for me,” said Knapp.
