The Red Deer Polytechnic Queens will have their hands full in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Women’s Hockey Championship finals.
Beginning on Friday evening Red Deer will face the number-one-seeded NAIT Ooks in a best-of-five series for the league title. Game one will take place in Edmonton on Friday and back in Red Deer on Saturday, both at 7 p.m.
The Queens are certainly a great team as well finishing second in the standings.
“I think we’re feeling pretty good,” said Queens’ second-year defenceman Alesha Santos. “We’re working on a lot of our little details and for our game against NAIT focusing in on our play against them.
This season the two teams have met five times and NAIT has the slight upper hand winning three of those matchups. Santos explained Edmonton’s strength is what they can do in the offensive zone.
“We’re also very strong defensively so we’re able to combat that but they’re definitely a strong offensive team. They have a lot of knowledge and experience on their team,” she added.
This season the Queens have had plenty of offensive production from their veteran players. Both Madison Sansom and Avery Lajeunesse lead the team with 14 points (eight goals and six assists) and Alli Soyko is right behind with 12 points (two goals and 10 assists).
Santos was named an assistant captain this season in only her second season. Being a part of the leadership group she said has been great.
“I think I consider myself more of a leader who leads by example through my skill on the ice. I think we’ve all been a nice addition to the leadership group,” she said.
The goaltending battle should be an important part of the series between the two teams. Queens Izzy Palumbo leads the ACAC in both goals against average and save percentage but NAIT’s Kaitlyn Slator is right behind her in second place. Queens Tanya Disotell-Dunsmore could also play in the series and has the league’s third-best GAA.
As the defending ACAC Champions the Queens had plenty of pressure to go back-to-back and so far they’ve answered the bell.
“I think we’ve really been showing our skill throughout the league again this year. We’ve hit a lot of our goals for this year and the last one we have to finish off is defending the crown,” she said.
“It’s something that we’ve talked about all year and always wanted to do and focus on. That’s what we’ve always strived and prepped ourselves for.
“Now we just have to go out and do it.”