Ontario South girls a solid gold fit

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The theory that some teams require some time to jell was one that did not apply to the Ontario South girls' entry at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships held April 21 to 27 in Akwesasne.

Some members of the Ontario South side had just met their team-mates a few days before the Canadian tournament began. But that didn't prevent the club from steamrolling over all of its opponents.

Ontario South convincingly won all seven of its matches at the nationals. The squad blanked a Quebec team called Eastern Door and The North with a score of 4-0 in the gold-medal final staged on April 27.

"We just jelled in minutes," Ontario South captain Nikaiataa Skidders said of her squad, which featured 21 players. "It was one big family and we all just came together."

The Ontario South side shone both offensively and defensively at the tournament. In its seven matches it scored 39 goals while impressively yielding just three (all of those in round-robin play).

Ontario South coach Vincent Lickers wasn't surprised to see his charges celebrating at the end of the tournament.

"I expected to win," he said. "And the girls worked hard after we had set our goals early on. When we chose our personnel, we had an idea coming into it which players would work well with each other. And they did."

Ontario South's roster included 10 Akwesasne residents and six from Six Nations.

Coach Lickers is also from Six Nations. And he was thrilled to be involved with an historic event.

"The girls made history here," he said moments after the gold-medal tilt. "Hopefully it's the beginning of a rather meaningful tournament for ladies hockey."

Forward Valen Timmins, who was selected as Ontario South's player of the game in the championship final, said she's pretty excited over the fact that Native players now have their own national tournament.

"It gives us an opportunity to showcase our skills," said Timmins, a 14-year-old from Akwesasne, who besides suiting up for her high school squad also toils for a girls' 19-and-under team in Potsdam, New York.

Timmins scored what held up to be the game-winning goal at the 4:33 mark of the opening period in the gold-medal battle. Ontario South then took control of the match by adding two more first-period goals from forward Michelle Guay and defender Serene Porter.

Ontario South forward Shana Patterson then scored the game's only other goal, late in the second period.

Kari Bonaparte and Amanda Greene shared the shutout after splitting the netminding duties in the final for Ontario South. Combined they made a total of 15 saves.

Ontario South fired a total of 19 shots at Nina Vachon and Kawisi:io McComber, who shared the Quebec goaltending chores.

Quebec coach Emmett Matoush was rather impressed with the displays of the Ontario South goaltenders, especially Greene, who made a handful of key stops in the final period.

"Even our best players couldn't beat her," said Matoush, whose daughter Jewyll, a defender, was selected as Quebec's player of the game in the gold-medal match.

Matoush said his players were rather excited to head home with some hardware, even though it was a silver medal and not the preferred gold.

"The girls worked hard for it and they deserved it," he said.

Matoush said he'd like to see Quebec ice two teams for next year's tournament, just like Ontario did at this year's event.

"We think we're going to get our own team," added Matoush, who lives in northern Quebec in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region. "That's what we're trying to work on."

In the girls' bronze-medal contest, Saskatchewan edged Ontario North 5-4.

Manitoba and New Brunswick also iced teams in the six-team girls' division. Both squads failed to advance to the tourney's medal-round games after registering 1-3-1 and 0-5-0 round-robin records, respectively.