U13 Cyclones ready to host the province’s best

By Lethbridge Herald on March 22, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge U13 Cyclones female hockey team are ready to challenge the province’s best at U13B level as hosts of the Provincial Championship this weekend.

“It’s really good, especially for female hockey around the area, “ said Ryan Tunall,  U13B provincial tournament media/communications chair.

“We’ve got a really dedicated group of girls right through from the U7 programs all the way the up, and it’s really exciting to have the spotlight on female hockey here in Lethbridge.”

The Cyclones made it to the Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League final where they lost to Stettler in two games.

The girls are bound to use that as motivation for the tournament.

“ … Brad Patterson is our head coach and I know he’ll have the girls fired up,” said Tunall.

“And Stettler came into our house and won a banner on our ice. So, I know they’ll be quite fired up and they’re a really good team. We beat Stettler in regular season in Stettler and then they got our number in playoffs. So super talented group up there, but we match up pretty good with them and it’s really the only team that we know going into this tournament. So that’ll be interesting because we haven’t played any of the other teams.”

Tunall thinks the Cyclones just have to worry about their own game with not being familiar with the rest of their opponents.

“But yeah, (we) got a few scouting reports from people we know around the province,” he said.

“But yeah it’ll be a surprise. There’s teams  all the way …  in from Beaverlodge, like we have no idea what to expect from them. I believe Irma won the U13B last year. So they’ll probably have some returning players …  Yeah, it’s going to be exciting, it’s going to be really good hockey.”

Tunall has learned with this age group that there is lots of loudness, the teams cheer each other on and have a lot of fun.

“And it’s going to be fast paced,” he said.

“And like I say, it’s going to be the best teams across the province (that) are going to be in town. It’s going to be the best-of-the-best.”

The Cyclones drop the puck on their first game of the tournament at 1:45 p.m. today versus Irma at Nicholas Sheran Arena.

The team’s second game will be a rematch against Stettler at 9 a.m. on Friday.

Their third game will be on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. versus Calgary.

The other teams in the championship include St. Albert SA552 and GHC Heat.

Opening ceremonies are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday.

Games run until Sunday.

All games are Nicholas Sheran Arena and the schedule can be found at www. u13femaleb.haprovincials.ca.