Canada's U-18 national championships are underway with six teams from across Canada descending on Llyodminster, Alberta.
On the opening day of the tournament the Edmonton Jr. Oilers, Saskatoon Stars, and Lloydminster Steelers earned wins. Here's a look at the opening day action.
Stars Shine In Game One
The Saskatoon Stars opened their tournament narrowly holding off the reigning silver medalists the North York Storm. Saskatoon jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead with first period goals from Kolbee Ashe, Mickenzie Petford, Sadie Green, and Peyton Birnie.
Lily Paisley and Demi Lazarou attempted to pull the North York Storm back into contention in the game with Lazarou scoring and adding two assists, while Paisley scored twice and added an assist. Olivia Van Sickle also scored for North York. In the end, the difference was a third period goal by Mikayla Broadfoot lifting Saskatoon to a 5-4 win over North York, who fought all the way back.
“I think we had a good first 20 here—we set the tone. It was a really hard game in the first 20 minutes," said Saskatoon head coach Alana Serhan. "We focused on a lot of different things—we got away from that in the second and we had moments in the third, but ultimately, we were very happy with the first period. They pushed back; this is a national championship, they need to push too, but we found a way to get it done today, [even if] it wasn’t as clean as we wanted.”
Curran Scores Twice For Oilers
Boston University commit Julia Curran scored twice for the Edmonton Jr. Oilers as they defeated Étoiles de Laurentides-Lanaudière 4-1. Tavia Koscielnuk scored the game winning goal on the power play, while Union College commit Evie Hanson also tallied for the Oilers.
Abigael Blais had the Étoiles goal while Daphnée Pelletier made 38 saves in a losing effort for the Quebec Champions.
“I think today it was important to get our feet wet," said Edmonton head coach Joel Lenius. "We haven’t played for two weeks. Credit to [the Étoiles], they had a great power play, they put us on our heels at times."
Hosts Win In Overtime
The Lloydminster Steelers entered as underdogs, but quickly proved they belong with a 2-1 overtime win over the Eastern Stars. Kalie Cole scored both goals for the Steelers, including the game-winning goal with 23 seconds left in overtime.
Emily Gardiner had the only goal for the Stars on a late third period power play. It was an exciting first game for Cole getting to earn a win, and score twice, in front of their home crowd.
"It feels very good; it was electric in here," said Cole. "[There were some nerves] in the dressing room before the game, but I thought we dealt with the nerves very well. When they tied the game in the third, we needed to get back on the horse, so we worked hard the rest of the period and even more in overtime and we got a deserved win tonight. It was a really good game and it feels very good. We still have a lot of hard work coming, we will need to rest and we want to make sure to show our fans how good we are."
The Esso Cup continues today with Étoiles Laurentides-Lanaudière facing the Saskatoon Stars, the Eastern Stars taking on the North York Storm, and the Edmonton Jr. Oilers wrapping up the day againsdt the Lloydminster Steelers.