Cyclones ready to host provincials
Female peewee B hockey team unbeaten heading into the weekend
The season has been, thus far, simply perfect for the Lethbridge Cyclones. As the female peewee B hockey team heads into this weekend as Hockey Alberta provincial hosts, they’d like to keep it that way.
Following an unblemished 25-0 season in Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League play, the Cyclones sweep into the ATB Centre for the Hockey Alberta Peewee Female B Provincial Championship, starting today and running until Sunday, with eight teams going for this year’s banner.
“We have a good team this year and we have some big hopes in mind. So we’re looking forward to it,” said Cyclones head coach Chris Fantazir whose team was 19-0 in the regular season 6-0 in the playoffs to capture the Zone title. “It’s the girls and their mentality. They show up every game. To go 25-0 you have to be ready to go every time, you can’t take a shift or a day off. We have a pretty good mix, we have some girls who are in their second year of hockey and we have girls who have been playing right from the start. For them to come together and for the experienced girls to kind of part with their egos and help the younger ones along, it has shown great growth. They have had a chance to flourish. It’s their attitude of always showing up and always being ready to put in the work and the effort.”
The hosts kick off the action this morning at 10:15 a.m. when they take on the Zone 4 West Central Wildcats.
The Cyclones return to action at 3:30 p.m. when they face off against the Battle River Knights.
“Battle River won their league in the East Central Girls Hockey League,” said Fantazir. “So we have three league champions coming in. So there will be some tough competition.”
That only pushes the Cyclones to keep their undefeated season intact in front of their hometown crowd this weekend.
“The excitement level is pretty high, so they’re ready to go,” said Fantazir. “We ran our practices and had some good, high tempo with a lot of energy. They’re a pretty confident group of ladies, they’ve got the swagger to them. They know if they put in the work they’ll have good results.”
The Cyclones wrap up the round-robin portion on Saturday at 12:15 p.m. against the Calgary Flames.
Saturday begins with a pancake breakfast at 8 a.m., followed by a female Try Hockey event at 10 a.m. in the ATB Centre west arena. The games start at 10 a.m. in the east arena.
The semifinals go Sunday at 8 a.m. in the west arena and 8:15 a.m. in the east arena.
The gold medal game is slated for 1:30 p.m. in the east arena.
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