Friday, April 02, 2004
Kevin Rothbauer
For the Calgary Herald

Wild Rose rivals battle for national supremacy

It was all Alberta, all night, at the Max Bell Centre.

The most anticipated matchups of the 2004 Canadian ringette championships were played out Thursday between the host teams and Wild Rose Country's provincial representatives.

Because Alberta is the host province, it places two teams into each of the junior, belle and open divisions: the provincial champion becomes Team Alberta, and the provincial runner-up becomes the Host team.

One of Alberta's biggest ringette rivalries is between Calgary's Sola squad and Black Gold, from outside Edmonton.

The chance to represent Alberta came down to a late February contest between Sola and Black Gold, which Sola won in overtime, throwing more fuel on the fire. With Sola wearing Team Alberta colours and Black Gold relegated to the Host position, the teams renewed acquaintances Thursday as both teams battled for playoff position.

Sola/Team Alberta pulled off a 5-3 win over a determined Black Gold/Host squad. Despite going down 4-0 early in the game, Black Gold rallied to make it 4-3 before Alberta's Kaelyn Barrie scored her third goal of the game to get some insurance.

"We've always had a rivalry with (Black Gold)," said 17-year-old Alberta captain Lindsay Veale.

"That was probably the biggest game of the whole tournament," noted Black Gold's Kelsey Gott, 18.

At the junior level, 15 and under, Alberta is represented by Calgary Kokoro, defeated host team Red Deer/Lacombe 5-3 Thursday in the opening round of a three-part Battle of Alberta, improving to 8-0.

Red Deer/Lacombe dropped to 4-4 and sixth place in the division. Jennifer Hartley had two goals and two assists for Kokoro.

In the late open game, Alberta (Edmonton) defeated the host squad from Calgary Niealto 7-0.