By / ALISSA McARTHUR
Riding high from a second place finish at the NAHA Labour Day Tournament, the Richmond Pacific Steelers Under-18 female team have returned from an October trip to Vermont with another positive result.
From Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, the Steelers iced a lineup of players selected especially for the Labour Day Tournament at the University of Vermont and came away with a 3-1 record against some of the top talent in North America.
The core of that team formed the Steelers’ club team that will compete in two different leagues this season.
The Steelers are coached by Billy Coupland, a former scouting co-ordinator for the WHL’s Kootenay Ice and Kelowna Rockets.
“With my coaching experience over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some very elite and motivated athletes,” said Coupland. “[The Steelers] are a very focused group and they just want to get better. They trust that I’ll be able to help push them in the right direction.”
The Steelers, who were founded in 1999, are a U-18 AAA team that has twice represented British Columbia in the Esso National Championships and faced off against some of the top senior women’s teams in the country. As likely the top developmental team in BC, the Steelers have sent over 30 players to US college teams in the last five years.
This season sees the Steelers participating in prestigious invitation-only tournaments against some of the top teams in North America for their age group.
The Steelers, the sole BC team to be invited to these elite tournaments, are also part of the inaugural Junior Women’s Hockey League, which also includes the Vermont-based North American Hockey Academy, Warner (Alberta) Hockey School, and Washington (DC) Pride. Along with their membership in the JWHL, the Steelers are also registered with BC Hockey as a Zone Midget team, and will compete against the Vancouver Fusion and Fraser Valley Phantom.
In their first regular season JWHL action, the Steelers travelled back to Vermont for a set of four games, where they finished with a record of 2-1-1.
The Steelers opened the tourney with a 2-0 victory over Warner October 12. The next day they were handed a 6-2 loss by NAHA, but bounced back that night with a 3-3 draw against Warner.
The final game saw the Steelers defeat Washington 4-0.
Goaltender Hillary Pattenden recorded the shutout in both victories.
“I definitely think our team has improved since the Labour Day tournament,” said Pattenden. “We’ve had a lot of time in practice since then so I think we’ve started to grasp our systems more and more”
Netminder Pattenden is one of two Steelers players who have committed to NCAA teams on full-ride scholarship for next season.
Forward Dominique Goutsis will be heading to the University of Maine, while Pattenden will join Mercyhurst College in 2008-09.
“I visited Mercyhurst over spring break, and I really liked the feel of the campus,” said Pattenden, who works closely with her goaltending instructor, Angelo Maggio. “The hockey program there is excellent, as of right now they’re ranked number two in the NCAA…the Team Canada Evaluation camps really helped develop my game, being able to face a higher level of shooters.”
Pattenden is also one of two Steelers players to be selected to the Canadian National Women’s U-18 Team, coached by Melody Davidson, who was behind Team Canada’s bench for their gold medal performance at the 2002 Olympics. Defenceman Kaleigh Fratkin, who plays for the Steelers as an affiliate player in tournaments, was also named to the team.
Pattenden is confident her team will be able to improve on every set of game action.
“I think we’re going to get better with every tournament that we’re in, and we’re going to try and build on each performance. Our first game [of the October set in Vermont] against NAHA we lost 6-2, and so next time we really want to try and beat that team.”
The Steelers’ next JWHL action gets underway Nov. 23 at the U. of New Hampshire.
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