Gold again for Ontario South women's team

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It took a while to get going, but once the Ontario South entry got on track, it was impossible to derail.

And for the second straight year, the Ontario South women's side captured the gold medal at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships.

This year's tournament, which featured six entrants in the women's division, took place in Akwesasne from April 27 to May 3. The inaugural national tourney for Native players, held last year, had also been staged in Akwesasne.

A year ago the Ontario South club breezed through the tournament, winning all seven of its games while allowing a total of just three goals.

As for this year, Ontario South was still winless following its first three round-robin games. The team had two ties and one loss in those outings.

But the club then earned four straight victories, including a 6-3 triumph over Eastern Door and the North (EDN, the Quebec-based team) in the gold-medal contest.

Ontario South coach Rhonda Peters wasn't surprised to see her side defend its title.

"We knew it was possible," said Peters, who was an assistant coach with last year's championship club. "It was our goal from Day 1."

Peters said there was a rather good reason why her club got off to a slow start in this year's event.It didn't have any practices before it started playing games. A practice that had been scheduled for the day before the tourney had to be cancelled due to rink unavailability.

Ontario South was not able to squeeze in a practice until after its third round-robin match.

After that practice, the team did not lose again.

"We just had to fix a few things," Peters said.

Ontario South was led in the gold-medal game by Valen Timmons. The offensively gifted 15-year-old centre scored two goals and added two assists in the final.

"I guess in the end we wanted it more," said Timmons, who was also chosen as the most valuable player in the tournament.

Timmons ended up with nine points (six goals, three assists) in seven games. Peters said Timmons was a deserving recipient of her MVP award.

"Valen was very strong right from the start," Peters said. "She's an impact player who seems to get stronger as tournaments go along."

Ontario South defender Gillian Pash-Smoke also had a solid final. In fact, she scored the game-winning goal. Pash-Smoke scored on a breakaway late in the second period while her club was short-handed.

Pash-Smoke agreed the mid-week practice for her team was a turning point.

"We had a good two-hour practice and we picked it up after that," she said. "We also had a couple of team meetings and did a lot more things together as a team like going bowling."

As for the EDN entry, this marked the second straight year it was downed by Ontario South in the final. A year ago EDN was blanked 4-0 in the championship game. EDN coach Peter Jacobs said he was content being the runner-up once again.

"The girls played well and the competition was stiff," Jacobs said. "Ontario South wanted it more than we did."

Another Ontario club, Ontario North, also captured a medal at the tourney. It defeated Manitoba 4-1 in its bronze-medal outing.

Earlier in the tourney many thought it would be Ontario North vying for a gold medal. The club posted a perfect 5-0 round-robin record. But Ontario North was upset 6-4 by EDN in their semi-final match-up. Ontario North had thumped EDN 7-1 in their round-robin meeting.

Saskatchewan and Team Atlantic also participated in the tourney but registered disappointing records. Saskatchewan, which had earned a bronze medal at last year's tournament, had just one victory in its five round-robin matches. Team Atlantic was winless in its five starts.

Saskatchewan and Team Atlantic were scheduled to play a game to decide fifth and sixth place, but Saskatchewan was awarded a 1-0 win after Team Atlantic forfeited the contest following the death of one of the Elders who had traveled to the tournament with the team.