The Edmonton Junior Oilers can add the title of national champions to their long list of accomplishments in U18 AAA girls’ hockey.
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In the franchise’s ninth trip to the Canadian championship tournament, Edmonton won its first Esso Cup, topping the Saskatoon Stars 7-3 in the final Saturday evening in front of almost 1,000 fans at the venerable Centennial Civic Centre in Lloydminster.
“It’s just past words,” said Oilers blue-liner Jayde Sansregret, whose sister Sage is one of Edmonton’s assistant coaches.
“Just being able to come so far with this team. These people are my best friends. I couldn’t have asked for anything else. I couldn’t have asked for other people to experience this with.”
The milestone 15th edition of the Esso Cup capped the storied history of the Civic Centre, set to close after this season to make way for the flashy Cenovus Energy Hub.
The Pacific region champion Oilers were the toast of the Alberta league all season, and they continued that form at the weeklong Esso Cup, posting a perfect 5-0 record in round-robin play. Then came Edmonton’s memorable 1-0 overtime victory over the host Lloydminster PWM Steelers in Friday’s late semifinal, a dramatic night with more than 1,000 fans in attendance.
The Steelers, who had exceeded their expectations in reaching the semifinals, went on to lose 4-1 to the North York (Ont.) Storm in the bronze-medal game Saturday afternoon.
“There’s no better feeling than this,” Sage Sansregret said as her Oilers paraded the Esso Cup around the Civic Centre ice. “But to do it with this group, it makes it even better. It’s hard not get emotional about it. They’re just a great group of girls and athletes. It’s been an honour to coach them and watch them come this far.”
FARMING ROOTS
Each of them has a story to tell, like coach Sansregret’s journey from small-town roots to become a university hockey player and now a national champion U18 AAA coach. She was born and raised on a farm just outside Consort — an Alberta town of about 600 people — and played elite hockey in Red Deer before climbing the ladder to the collegiate game.
“I grew up as a farm kid and that taught me a lot of work ethic,” said Sansregret, 24. “I’m very happy to have a lot of my family here today to be able to watch me and my sister go through this process.”
Jayde Sansregret, 18, was a force on defence for the Oilers, who lost just one game this season as they marched toward a national gold medal after earning bronze last year.
The younger Sansregret followed her sister’s path through elite hockey in Red Deer before joining Edmonton at the U18 AAA level and moving in with her sister/coach. Jayde, also born in Consort, was nine years old when the family moved to Red Deer.
“Just being able to be in the big city (of Edmonton), playing AAA for a team like this, has always been one of my dreams,” she said. “At the time, Edmonton Junior Oilers wasn’t a thing — it was still Pandas’ hockey (during my childhood) — but I don’t think I could have asked for anything better.”
Jayde Sansregret went into the tournament as one of 16 Oilers already committed to university teams. She’s off to the University of New Brunswick next season with three of her Edmonton teammates in Keira Grant at forward, Madeline Renfree on defence and Taya Christie in net. It’s no wonder that multiple UNB jerseys were spotted among the assorted Oilers garb in the Civic Centre stands for the gold-medal game.
“It’s such an amazing campus and program,” Jayde said of joining the UNB Reds in Fredericton. “They treat you like one of their own and it’s everything that you want in a university. Every one of the girls and the coaches are like a family.”
The Oilers expressed a similar sentiment after their powerful performance Saturday, during which they scored two goals on their first four shots and led 3-0 before Saskatoon got on the scoreboard late in the first period.
The Stars cut the lead to 3-2 in the first minute of the second, but the Oilers fired four straight goals to make it 7-2 before the period ended. Saskatoon starting goaltender Tarryn Sutter was replaced when Edmonton went up 5-2, but she returned after the Oilers scored two goals in 32 seconds against Adrianna Bashnick.
Saskatoon coach Alana Serhan said she wanted to chat with Sutter and give her a chance to watch the flow of the game from the bench for a few minutes and enable her to regain her form the rest of the way.
“Then, just seeing how she bounced back from that (break) and that engaging conversation and, ultimately, putting her back in there to give a little bit of jam,” Serhan said. “She beared down. We won that third period and, for us, that’s a huge thing.”
Of course, the Oilers were already well on their way to their eventual gold-medal victory in the border battle between Edmonton and Saskatoon, each with a strong band of supporters on a sunny Prairie evening.
The Stars, who came from behind in the third period to defeat North York 3-2 in their semifinal, knew they were up against a powerhouse the next day in the Oilers.
“You look at the opposition that we’re playing against today in this gold-medal game and they’ve been here (multiple times),” said Serhan, who leads an entirely female coaching staff with Saskatoon.
“A large portion of these (Edmonton) girls have been here three times in three years. We’ve got (a roster full of) girls that have never had an Esso Cup berth. That just speaks to the level where we’re at and where we’re building to. So, the Saskatoon Stars are far from out of the picture.
“We had 11 incoming players this season, with a brand-new coaching staff. So, to get the buy-in in that regard, just to have everybody on the same page, it’s quite incredible.”
TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN
In the final, the Oilers got goals from seven players, including a three-point performance from Evie Hanson.
The decorated Edmonton team more than lived up to its pre-tournament billing as a juggernaut. What’s more, the Oilers won the national title without the services of their injured captain, Layla Matthew, out since December because of a torn ACL.
“We did it for her,” said Oilers forward Daniella Martorana, who scored in the final and was buzzing all tournament. “Everything we did was towards her. She’s an amazing captain. She supported us as best as she could.”
Wearing their gold medals, Martorana and her teammates were beaming as they gathered for photo after photo.
“It’s absolutely unreal,” she said. “I couldn’t have done it with a better group. Super proud.”
For the Oilers’ second consecutive game, Ciara Lang scored the winning goal. Less than a day earlier, her OT heroics against Lloydminster gave Edmonton its ticket to the final. She picked up where she left off Friday and added a goal and an assist Saturday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling and I’m so proud of this group,” said Lang, sporting the orange-and-blue skate laces that became the Oilers’ go-to playoff style.
“It feels amazing. We have a strong group. We faced a lot of adversity through the year, but to do this with this group is amazing.”
Lang (Clarkson) and Martorana (Merrimack) were among 10 Oilers committed to NCAA schools. Scouts from Canada and the U.S. dotted the stands during the Esso Cup, along with Hockey Canada luminaries like Cherie Piper and former national team coach Melody Davidson, who has east-central Alberta history.
Oilers forward Paige Smith, bound for Bemidji State University, was named the tournament’s most valuable player. The top scorer was Saskatoon’s Halle Duchene, who had two points in the gold-medal game and finished with six goals and 12 points in seven games.
Lloyd workhorse Harlee Houle, who made 50 stops in the Steelers’ semifinal loss, was selected as the top goaltender. Quebec’s Anais Leprohon of the Etoiles de Laurentides-Lanaudiere was chosen top defenceman, while North York forward Lilly Paisley was the most sportsmanlike player.
Before the Oilers’ golden finish Saturday, Edmonton’s best showings at the Esso Cup were silver medals in 2011 and 2014.
Making its first Esso Cup appearance in six years, and fifth nationals overall, Saskatoon’s silver last weekend matched its 2018 performance.
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