The Lower Mainland Thunder made it look so easy. But getting to the final of the Canadian ringette championships, let alone winning it, was anything but simple for the expansion National Ringette League club.
Ranked seventh in the country coming into the national championships hosted in Burnaby, the Thunder knocked off the top four clubs in the country, including three from back east in a two-day span, to win the first-ever Canadian ringette title in any division for B.C.
The Thunder handed Eastern conference regular season champion Montreal Mission just its third loss of the year, upsetting the high-scoring Quebec club 7-2 in the gold medal final at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Saturday.
First team all-star forward Salla Kyhala was the Burnaby NOW tournament MVP, scoring four goals in the final to lead the Lower Mainland team to its history-making win.
"This is where I saw the team going," said Kyhala, who had nine goals and two assists in her last three games. "Our defence scored, other people scored - I saw us as a team that we could do this. I saw us going this way - We can do this."
And do it they did.
The Thunder opened with a 2-3 start before turning their collective fortunes around with a 7-4 victory over Western champions Prairie Fire on April 12.
That sparked a lucky Friday the 13th for the Lower Mainland club that was punctuated by a 6-2 win over the Cambridge Turbos and then a 1-0 tiebreak match against the Eastern league runner-up.
The Thunder then outscored the No. 3 Ontario seed Ottawa Ice 6-1 to advance to the gold-medal final.
Burnaby's Julia Scigliano, the longest-serving player on the Lower Mainland team, keyed the Thunder victory in the final game with the game-opening goal from a shot in front that beat Montreal keeper Claudia Jett high to the glove side at 4:23 of the first period.
Scigliano was near speechless after the game recounting that moment.
"Everything is so unbelievable right now. I'm the only player from Burnaby. It's so special to all of us. Seeing everyone's faces - everyone up there (in the stands) is so excited - everyone I grew up with in Burnaby was watching. To score that first goal I will never forget that. I will never forget that one."
It's unlikely that many of the more than 1,000 in attendance will forget it either.
"We knew from the beginning of the season this is where we wanted to be. At the beginning we knew we had a chance to be here," Scigliano added.
