Rossland’s Gnarlie’s Angels made a stunning comeback to win Sunday’s championship bout against the Salmo’s Babes of Brutality.
The undefeated Angels were fighting an uphill battle from the start, behind for the most of the game, it all came down to the final jam in a finale that played like a hollywood movie.
Angel’s captain and lead jammer Canuck Norris said that she almost gave in to what the scoreboard read in the last few jams, that Salmo had the game.
“The last couple of jams I was like; they got it, they got us, this is it,” she recollects.
“I honestly wasn’t that optimistic, but you know what we held our own.”
Norris, who’s real name is Ashton LePage, said that’s what helped the team in the end.
“I went out in the last jam and I wasn’t very hopeful, but I was like, okay, I’m just going to keep skating as hard as I can, for as long as I can and just hope for the best,” she said, and she got it, with a background of roaring fans.
LePage has been a member of the team since last season. She said 50 per cent have been playing about a year and the rest have been about six to eight months.
She said the strategy for this game was to maximize on power plays, which is when there’s a jammer in the box.
“Basically, what we focused on at practice, and just hitting hard and hitting fast and just trying to wear them out was pretty much our focus,” she said.
“We played them at the start of the season and we won then, but last year, our first game they beat us, so this was kind of the tie-breaker. They won one, we won one, this was the tiebreaker.”
She said that Salmo is always their toughest competitor.
“They have awesome players and like some of the Angels we play with some of the babes on our travel team, the Kootenay Kannibelles.
“So it’s hard because we get to know the way they play and they get to know the way we play, so when we play against each other, it makes it that much harder because we know everyone’s style of playing, so it ramps it up a little bit.”
Phil yer Pants, one of the two Angels’ coaches, said the season ended incredibly, especially given that his team had been behind for most of the game.
“A lot of the time we simply got outplayed, like there blockers were doing a really good job,” he said.
“And to go into the last jam, 13, 15 points down and then to come out 13 points ahead, that’s like Disney movie stuff. Full on fairy tale.”
Pants said there is a saying that the team uses in practice, that’s that there’s always more toothpaste in the tube.
“You never give up,” he added. “
You just keep going and going, and that’s what our girls did. It was just amazing.”
He was amazed by the team’s record, held undefeated the whole season, but just as amazed by the crowds.
“The crowds were just amazing,” he added. “So loud. Everyone’s so excited about derby and I hope that we can sustain that next season. I think the league’s going to get more competitive and you’ll see more tight games like this.”