Kyanna Prazma, much to her disbelief, is part of a championship team.
Sunday in Lake Cowichan, Prazma and her Pandas teammates defeated the Thunderbirds 4-1 in the final game of B.C. Hockey's Female Under-18 B.C. Cup. The Pandas trailed 1-0 until the 13-minute mark of the third period but then reeled off four consecutive goals and stepped off the ice with the victory.
"It was really shocking, actually, because the final didn't go our way at first," said Prazma, a local 15-year-old who played left wing for the Pandas.
"I've never really played at that high of a level before. I was really happy and it felt really good to win and be noticed like that."
Prazma was one of the Pandas' marksmen in the game. She scored her club's final goal when she skated in from the blueline, took a shot from the top of the faceoff circle, and found mesh to the low blocker side on the goalie.
Overall, the Pandas compiled a 4-0 record in the jamboree-style tournament.
"We gelled as a team pretty quickly," said Prazma, who played midget triple-A hockey as a member of the Bursey Buryn Cougars this past season.
Brittanie Ney of 100 Mile House and Taya Garneau of Prince George -- both players Bursey Buryn Cats -- were on the Thunderbirds roster for the B.C. Cup.
In the game for third place, the Wolverines clipped the Eagles 4-3 in overtime. Stacey Duncan -- a Valemount forward who also skated for Bursey Buryn during the season -- was in uniform for the Wolverines, while Megan Spooner, Carly Bursey and Robyn Murphy all played for the Eagles. Spooner and Bursey call Prince George home and Murphy is from Fort St. John. All three were part of that same Bursey Buryn club during the regular season.
All B.C. Cup participants were selected for the tournament based on their performances at district tryout camps earlier in the year.
Of the 120 players who showed their skills in the B.C. Cup, 46 will be chosen to attend a provincial development camp in Salmon Arm in May. Prazma, who also had three assists in the tournament, isn't sure if she'll have a spot in the camp.
"There were a lot of good girls there (at the B.C. Cup)," she said. "You have to have your fitness and your on-ice evaluations really top-notch. A lot of those girls, more than 20 of them, have all of it. It just all depends on what the coaches are looking for in the players."
