The Valley East Junior "A" Ringette team skated away with their second Gold medal in as many tournaments, winning the Cambridge Invitational recently. Goals by Meghan West, Chelsie Moore and Danyka Gagnon in the first half and the eventual game winner by Brooke Hope early in the second half lifted Valley East to a 4-3 win over Hamilton in the championship game.

Goaltender Christale Trottier served up a stellar performance in net, including a game-saving breakaway save. The junior ladies rebounded from a slow start to post a 3-1 victory over Cambridge in the tournament opener, with Danyka Gagnon handling all of the scoring, mixing in a short-handed goal for good measure.

Game two would match Valley East with Upper Ottawa Valley, the host club for the 2005 Junior "A" Provincial Championships in March. Upper Ottawa burst out with a pair of goals in the opening three minutes for the early lead but withered as the Valley girls replied with five goals in the final six minutes of the first half and cruised to a 7-3 win. Scoring for Valley East were Danyka Gagnon with 4 goals, Carly Fraser with two and Brooke Hope with a single marker.

Saturday started much better as the locals enjoyed a strong skating performance against Burlington, resulting a 7-0 whitewash. The team was paced by two goal performances by Brooke Hope and Danyka Gagnon and singles from Chelsie Moore, Carly Fraser and Jena Kiviaho. Christale Trottier recorded the shut-out.

The final round robin game would see the ladies drop their only game, a 4-3 loss to Waterloo. Scoring for the Valley were Danyka Gagnon with 2 and Jena Kiviaho. The Valley East championship roster also included: Allie Peacock, Caitlin McAuliffe, Abbie Scott, Kirsti Manuel, Angele Lachance as well as goaltender Jillian Shell.

Next on tap for the Valley East Junior "A" Ringette team is the Northeast Region Playdowns, with the winners advancing to the Provincial Championships in Pembroke in March. The playdowns schedule include trips to Timmins on January 22nd and North Bay on January 29th and close out by hosting Timmins and North Bay on January 30th at the Coady Memorial Arena in Levack. The playdowns are a double round robin (home & home) format between the three teams.

Valley East will also be attending the Gloucester/Cumberland Invitational tournament February 11th to 13th. In other local ringette news, the Valley East Tween "A" squad were 2-2 in round-robin play and finished third to miss out of the Championship Final.