Flash, bang, wallop: Calgary Fire White win Alberta Provincial Championship 2018

A season of hard work: all teams. A moment of celebration: one team. Calgary Fire White bussed it 716 km north to Grande Prairie and went back home with the Alberta Provincial Champions (Bantam Female Elite) banner on Sunday with a win in the Gold Final, 2-0 over North Central Impact.

Flash

This was no flash win over a few tournament games when anything can happen. Fire White ended the 2017-18 season with a total of 63 points from 26 games, just four regular time losses in the season. The team tallied an impressive twelve points ahead of their nearest competitor, St. Albert Raiders, who also featured in this year’s Alberta provincial championships presented by ATB Financial at the Coca-Cola Centre in Grande Prairie.

Bang

Fire White went off with a bang in their first game on Thursday, beating their neighbours from Okotoks, the Rocky Mountain Raiders by a score of 3-1. The firing continued through the weekend with wins against North Central Impact (2-1), St. Albert Raiders (2-0) and hosts Peace Country Storm (4-2) that put them in the top berth and a place in the Gold Final against North Central Impact.

Wallop

Championships are enabled by scoring goals: Calgary Fire put 13 goals into the nets. Congratulations to the scorers: Gracie Gilkyson (1); Mya Healey (1); Hayley Wiltshire (3); Mia Bierd (2); Ashlynn Stitt (1); Elizabeth Mura (1); Ryann Perrett (1); Ella Kitchen (1); and Sarah Gaiser (2). And to their forward colleagues who also put pressure on the net and made the plays: Jayna Barnden, Chyenne Risling, Jordyn Hutt and Hannah Suto.

Championships are really won though by preventing the other teams from scoring. Congratulations to the Fire White goalies, Ali Kieren and Kalynah Fong-Martin who both put in impressive performances between the pipes. And congratulations to the defence crew who competed for pucks and kept the opposition teams down to scoring just four goals in five games: Gracie Gilkyson, Caolan Marks, Asha Hanson, Jennifer Nixon, Elizabeth Mura and Payten Evans.

Flash, Bang, Wallop

It’s been a pleasure photographing the Calgary Fire White games throughout this season. It was also fun picking songs of the games. Thank you all the players, coaches, manager, off-ice helpers, DJ’s and parents for a smashing season.

In this final blog of the season, I’m ending with a reference to a film, and a song therein. The film is Half a Sixpence, a British musical from 1967, starring Tommy Steele, who sang the song Flash, Bang, Wallop while a wedding (not a hockey game!) is being photographed. To quote: “What a picture, what a picture. Um-tiddly-um-pum-um-pum-pum. Stick it in your fam’ly album” Check out this link to Half a Sixpence if you want to unravel that Brit-speak!

You can stick this in the win column; stick it in the Alberta list of Champions; stick some in your family album!

More action from the game

For more photos from the Fire White’s five games in the 2018 Alberta Provincial Championships please visit J. Ashley Nixon Communications and seek HOCKEY