History-making AAA Selects set for Atlantics
Over the years, Katie Pentz and Troy Reid have won several provincial championships together. But the most recent one may have been the sweetest.
After the success the Northern Subway Selects hockey player and her coach had in the last 10 years – winning the Nova Scotia title in Atom AA, Pee Wee AA and Bantam AA – the title of Nova Scotia champion in Midget AAA had eluded them until now.
For the first time in the team’s history, the Selects won the Nova Scotia Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship over Metro Boston Pizza, and will represent the province at the Atlantic championship, starting on Thursday.
“With the boundaries and what different areas teams can draw from, in my opinion, the Metro area has always been the team to beat,” said Reid. “Under current alignments, I think it’s a big deal.”
Now in her fourth year with the Midget AAA team – Pentz played her first year as an underager – the team was able to overcome the Metro Boston Pizza team that’s won the Nova Scotia title seven times since the league was formed nine years ago.
“It means that as a team we’re doing all the right things together and working hard. To get it my last year felt really good,” said the assistant captain, who calls Trenton home.
“I think we have a lot of heart on the team. Everyone had their mind set on it, and everyone cared a lot. We worked really hard for it this year. We didn’t really consider losing to be an option.”
The Northern Subway Selects came close in 2015 when the team won silver in its first appearance in the league final, but were defeated by the Metro team.
“Every year, we have the attitude that we can win this,” said Reid. “From the start, I felt we had a good team – I’m just glad it worked out.”
The Caribou resident said in his four years of coaching the Northern Subway Selects, he’s always had skilled teams, but this one really bought into the coaching staff’s plan. “This group is hungry,” he said, noting that they brought passion to the rink during the playoffs. “It really comes from within the walls of the dressing room, if they feel they’re capable of winning.”
The Selects won the series against Boston Pizza in four games, battling the Metro team all season for top spot, and finishing in second just two points behind. They defeated the thirdplace East Hants ProCresting Penguins in the semifinal series.
They won the first two of the final series and then hoped to win Game 3, played at the Hector Arena instead of the usual Pictou County Wellness Centre, but were defeated in overtime 2-1. Pentz scored the team’s only goal.
It was the first game in the playoffs that the Selects hadn’t scored first, and Reid said when the game was over, it almost seemed like they had lost the series. “We weren’t used to trailing,” he said.
But the team regrouped for the fourth game in the best-offive series. “Whatever we asked them to do, they were willing to make an attempt. The results speak for themselves.”
Back at the Wellness Centre in Game 4, Pentz scored the only goal of the game, which ended with a 1-0 shutout for the Selects.
Reid said timely goaltending throughout the series helped in the wins, noting that a total of only four goals were given up in four games in regulation play. “That’s a recipe for success, keeping the goals against down.”
Reid said the plan at Atlantics – hosted by East Hants – is to take one game at a time, with the second day of competition looking like it will be the toughest. “We have to make sure we compete.”
For the players born in 2000, this is the first time they’ve ever won a provincial title. Secondyear player Sophia Wornell of New Glasgow is proud of the accomplishment “finally getting the chance to call myself a provincial champion and getting … to represent Nova Scotia in Atlantics is beyond exciting,” she said.
“We’re all really pumped up,” said Pentz.