The Nelson Blueliners won the 18th Annual Icebreaker earlier this month with a convincing 4-1 win over the Trail Cougars in the finals of the tournament.
Nelson forwards Lauren Strudwick and Kathleen Dempster each tallied two goals in the win while Thea Stayanovich answered for the Cougars. Both Nelson’s Gerri Stilwell and Trail goaltender Tracey Billet were outstanding between the pipes.
Nelson came into the final of the advanced tournament after winning all their round robin games against Trail, the Fernie Hussies and Spokane Stars.
It was a hard fought round with Fernie racking up 40 minutes of penalties before the finals.
Spokane took bronze medal honours against the Fernie team in a 4-3 semi-final. Teka Parks scored two goals, while Patti Jones and Melissa Verwest each put one into the net for the American squad. Kim Shepland, Georgina Ewing and Christa Donald scored for Fernie.
The Thorman Driller 5th Annual tourney ran concurrently with the Icebreaker on the April 5 to 7 weekend featuring four intermediate teams from Calgary, Creston and Nelson. The Calgary team took the round-robin tourney with three convincing wins, followed by Nelson Driller Team 1, Nelson Team 2 and the Creston Jets.
The Blueliners wish to thank their many fans and sponsors and are already looking foward to next season — the team’s twentith anniversary.