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Rustlers U11 A1 team brings home the first gold of the season

Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey team shined at the tournament over Thanksgiving weekend
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Rustlers U11 A1 team after winning at the the Richmond Ice Breaker Tournament. (Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association/Special to The News)

Ridge Meadows Minor Hockey Association’s U11 A1 team took gold over the Thanksgiving Weekend at the Richmond Ice Breaker Tournament.

The association said, “Congratulations to our U11 A1 team who have won gold in the Richmond Ice Breaker Tournament! Our first gold medal has been collected! Here is to a season full of many more!”

The tournament, which took place from Oct. 8 to Oct. 11 at the Richmond Ice Centre, was the first tournament of the season and was hosted by the Richmond Jets.

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On Oct. 8, the team played Van Minor and won 11-1, then on Oct. 9, they played Nanaimo who scored 1 against Ridge Meadows’ 5. On Oct. 10, Ridge Meadows won 8-0 against Victoria and entered the Quarter Finals. They also won the quarter finals game against JDF 12-3, pushing the team into semi-finals against Kamloops on Oct. 11.

According to Dale Lupul, head coach for the team, the team was lead by two strong goaltenders, Ashleigh Rope and Mason Baptiste, playing well all weekend. Rope was able to record her first ever shut out against Victoria.

The game against Kamloops ran close. According to Lupul, this semi finals game was the most intense.

“We played a strong Kamloops team. Ridge was down 3-2 with four minutes left. Emmett Baines scored to make it 3-3. We were then short-handed, with Max Ritchey scoring a short-handed goal with 46 second left to win the game.”

The Championship game was against Coquitlam and the Rustlers U11 won 6-3 against the Coquitlam team, bringing home the first gold of the season.

Over the entire weekend, the team went 6-0, scoring 46 goals for and giving up 11 goals against, said Lupul.

Connor Baines has been named the team’s captain, with Dawson Malawsky, Carter Cavan, Jackson Sponchia as assistant captains.

“The team is showing strong, and hoping to have a strong tiering round before hosting a Remembrance Weekend tournament,” he said.

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Priyanka Ketkar

About the Author: Priyanka Ketkar

Priyanka Ketkar has been a journalist since 2011 with extensive experience in community-driven news writing, feature writing, and editing.
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