The Richmond Bantam A1 Jets have come soaring out of the gate and it is girl power in the crease leading the way.
The city association’s top rep team for 13-and-14-year-olds includes Sophie Lim-Metz and Lauren MacKay as its two starting goaltenders. No one can recall the last time a boys hockey team at this age and tier featured two girls in net and they hardly look out of place.
Through seven pre-season games, the Jets have a 6-1-0 record with the girls combining for a 1.33 goals against average and a .923 save percentage. They beat out five other boys for the roster spots.
“We had seven goalies tryout for the A1 team. When push comes to shove, during the tryouts, they were far and beyond the two most advanced out there,” said Jets A1 head coach Mike Idema. “It has nothing to do with male versus female or anything like that. They were highly evaluated by the tryout evaluators and myself.
“Hockey has come a long way with all these additional ice times and they have definitely benefitted from that. You can tell who has worked on their game and who hasn’t. By all means they deserve to be here.”
Lim-Metz and MacKay have been fixtures in the Richmond-based Elite Goalies Canada program for years — working mostly with Pasco Valana who also happens to be goalie coach for the national women’s team, along with former pros Mike Valley and Alex Auld.
They both stepped into the crease for the first time when they were six with the Richmond Ravens Female program and along the way have become best friends. Both are Grade 9 honour roll students at Hugh Boyd Secondary School.
MacKay was the first to move over to boys hockey when she made Richmond Minor’s Atom A1 team. Lim-Metz re-united with her when they both made the Blues’ Pee Wee A1 squad for the 2017-18 campaign. Last season they played for the Jets’ Bantam A3 and A2 teams respectively — paving the way for their A1 spots this year.
Lim-Metz’s father Brendan Metz also happens to be an instructor with Elite Goalies Canada. He says girls seem to benefit even more from the additional training at the younger ages, especially the emphasis on skating, not just stopping pucks.
“Just the impulse control at this age,” said Metz. “In general, girls are able to maybe focus and channel their energy a little bit more.
“Why we are seeing so many phenomenal female goalies is they have worked on skating for the position. It’s tough for younger kids to fall in love with skating because it isn’t the most exciting thing. It’s very challenging with all that gear. Kids love to make saves but skating is fundamentally one of the most important parts at younger ages.”
The girls found out they had made the team while during lunch break at school couple of weeks ago.
“When we saw the third goalie had been released we kind of put two and two together. I thought we were pretty prepared because in the summer we were working really hard on and off the ice. I think that really helped us,” said MacKay.
“The mood and chemistry on the team is great. We are a tight knight team and the boys are like brothers to us,” added Lim-Metz.
She has already been affiliated with the Fraser Valley Rush and regularly practices with the B.C. Midget AAA Female Hockey League team out of the Langley Events Centre. Lim-Metz attended B.C. Hockey’s U16 identification camp last spring and was the only girl to play in the BCHL-sponsored Junior Showcase Hockey League as a member of the U15 Surrey Junior Eagles.
MacKay played for the Vancouver Prospects AAA Female Team, earning a silver medal in Lake Placid, NY and gold at the Canada Cup West tournaments. She also received an invite to play for the Shattuck St. Mary’s Future team in Boston — the renowned hockey boarding school in Minnesota where Richmond standouts Courtney Vorster and Kate Reilly attended.
Both will make the transition back to girls hockey next season for the Midget age level with aspirations of earning university scholarships and maybe even one day playing for Team Canada.
Given what they have accomplished so far, they are goals that are well within reach.
