Pressure? What pressure?
The Red Deer Bandits weren’t feeling the heat when they headed to Victoria last week to represent Alberta in the Western Shield tournament. That’s mainly due to the fact they didn’t realize they’d be competing in the Western Canada women’s hockey championship until a week or so prior to the event.
“We didn’t have any expectations. We didn’t really know what to expect because we weren’t supposed to be going,” said Bandits coach Toni Lassu, whose team was unbeaten in round-robin play and captured the Western title with a 4-3 win over the Killarney, Man., Knights in Sunday’s final.
The Bandits won bronze in the provincial AA championship last month in Edmonton, where the Edmonton Panda Alumni defeated the South Calgary NHLers in the gold-medal game. But neither of the Alberta finalists were able to attend the Western Shield, so the call went out to the Bandits.
“They (Hockey Alberta) called us and our girls were willing to go,” said Lassu. “As it turned out, we played great. Everybody played very well. We were really relaxed and we just had a good time because we didn’t have any expectations.”
The Bandits opened the Western championship with a 5-4 win over Saskatoon, followed up with 2-2 and 3-3 ties against Killarney and the Delta, B.C., Jets, then knocked off Winnipeg 4-2 to advance to the gold-medal game.
The Red Deer squad, led offensively by the likes of top scorer Janay Chipman, Sarah Poberznick, Innisfail’s Allyson Bendfeld and Jenn Lunn of Red Deer, who led the Bandits with seven points (3g,4a) at the provincials, play in Division I of the Southern Alberta Women’s Hockey Association.
The team finished fourth in regular-season play and were eliminated in the playoff semifinals.
“Our division is extremely competitive. We finished fourth but on any given day any team can win,” said Lassu, who started the season as a player and moved behind the bench in January after learning of her pregnancy.
She, along with four other players, live in Calgary, where the Bandits play one weekday game during the season. The team also plays at the Red Deer Kinex on Saturday nights.
Lassu, whose husband Chris is from Red Deer and also helps with coaching duties, is a former RDC Queens player, as are starting goalie Amy Freistadt, Lunn, Janelle Cadman, Aspen Haynes and Nikki Ree. Lori Krause is the Bandits’ longest-serving player, with more than 10 years of service.
“We struggled a bit this season with getting girls out to play. We had four girls get pregnant so we played a lot of the year with seven to nine players,” said Lassu. “But we had 10 of our own players in Victoria plus we picked up three girls from Calgary.”
Lassu, 28, insisted her coaching duties revolved mostly around offering vocal support.
“I didn’t really coach. I was more into reminding the ladies to keep going, to keep their feet moving,” she said.
The Bandits are still relishing their Western Shield triumph while looking ahead to next season.
“A lot of the girls should be back next year,” said Lassu. “It’s a pretty consistent group.”