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Noyes brings speed to RDC

The first thing you notice about Montanna Noyes is her skating.The RDC Queens first-year winger has speed to burn and could well be the top skater in the Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League.

The first thing you notice about Montanna Noyes is her skating.

The RDC Queens first-year winger has speed to burn and could well be the top skater in the Alberta Colleges Women’s Hockey League.

“I’ve always been a good skater, in fact just the other day my mom was telling me a story that when I was young people noticed my skating,” she said. “I took figure skating and power skating so that helped.”

Noyes’ outstanding speed has resulted in her getting at least one breakaway a game.

“Now I have to convert them,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s a matter of finding something I’m comfortable with when I get those chances.”

For the most part this season Noyes wasn’t converting her chances, but that changed after the Christmas break. She finished the regular season with six goals, which was tied for third most on the team and first among RDC rookies.

“Scoring for me is mostly mental. Even last year in midget I started scoring later in the season.”

The 18-year-old native of Onoway played midget last year in Spruce Grove after playing two seasons with the Edmonton Chimos, one of the premier senior women’s teams in the country.

“Those two years were important for me, I learned a lot,” she said.

“I was injured a lot of that time, but when I was healthy I got a lot of playing time for my age.”

Although she wasn’t scoring a lot early this season, Noyes stepped right into the RDC lineup.

“It didn’t take me long to fit in because of my skating, although I still need to work on my stick handling,” she said. “My time with the Chimos made it easier to step in, but there’s still a difference between college and midget, when it comes to the speed of the game and how aggressive and physical it is.”

The second half of the season Queens head coach Rob Weddell moved Noyes onto a line with first-year centre Jessica Abt and veteran winger Amber Graham, both of whom are strong skaters.

“We compliment each other because of that,” said Noyes. “Our speed gives us a lot of chances.”

One of those chances came seven minutes into the third overtime period Friday when Noyes beat NAIT Ooks netminder Meghan Witt to give the Queens a 4-3 victory in the opening game of the best-of-five league semifinal.

“That was one of my biggest goals so far,” said Noyes, who saw Witt and the Ooks come back to record a 1-0 victory Saturday to even the series.

The third game is Friday at 7 p.m. at NAIT with the fourth game Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at the Arena. If a fifth game is necessary it’s Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at NAIT

Noyes feels the Queens didn’t play their best in either of the first two games.

“I think after battling so hard and finally clinching a playoff berth we sat back a little,” she said. “We have to pick it up again and make a push over the next couple of weeks.”

The Queens have defeated the Ooks in three of the last four meetings.

“So we know we can beat them, it’s a matter of putting our minds to it.”

Noyes is taking kinesiology and will be at RDC at least two years.

• The RDC women’s doubles team of Paige Currah and Brianna Berthiaume will compete in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Conference badminton championships, which open Thursday at NAIT.

The RDC team placed third in the ACAC finals and were awarded a berth in the nationals when the second-place team from NAIT withdrew.

• The volleyball Queens are the only other RDC team still alive as they’ll compete in the nationals, March 12-14 in Gatineau, Que.

• The volleyball Queens, who beat Grant MacEwan 3-0 in the ACAC final, were named the Moxie’s Classic Grill female athletes of the week.

Men’s curling skip Kalem Hamilton, who was a first-team all-star and led the Kings to a silver medal at the ACAC finals, received the top male award.

• Central Albertans will get an opportunity to hear Team Canada men’s gold-winning head coach Mike Babcock first hand March 16 as he’s the guest speaker at the RDC Kings and Queens scholarship awards breakfast at the Capri Centre.

The seventh annual affair runs from 7:30-9:30 a.m. and is presented by the BMO Bank of Montreal.

Tickets are $60 each or $400 for a corporate table that includes seven seats and one guest RDC student-athlete.

For tickets contact Carolyn at 403-343-4093 or e-mail: carolyn.neufeld@rdc.ab.ca.

All proceeds go to support RDC athletic scholarships.

Babcock is a former coach of the RDC hockey Kings while Team Canada women’s head coach Melody Davidson is a RDC alumnus.

drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com