Louis-Riel wins OT thriller over tournament hosts to capture OFSAA girls’ hockey crown

By William Bailey

There were a number of moments where an OFSAA ‘AAA’ girls’ hockey title looked like it just wasn’t meant to be for the Louis-Riel Rebelles.

First, national capital league-champion Louis-Riel was a mid-size ‘AA’ school that had elected to compete in the top division for the province’s largest schools.

The Rebelles made it to the championship game on the strength of four victories, but they were facing the powerful host team from Brooklin High School, which had already beaten them earlier in the round robin 4-1.

And then they fell behind 3-1 after the first period of their sixth game over three days at the Mar. 19-21 event in Whitby.

“We knew we were in for a challenge against a team like Brooklin, who had not lost a game in a few years at this point,” reflected Rebelles coach Laurence Morissette. “But the girls were able to come back from a 3-1 deficit against the home team playing in their home rink, which really showed their resilience and dedication to the game.”

Louis-Riel rallied with three consecutive second-period goals by Natasha Dubé, Doris Gaspar and Zoey Dupuis (with her second of the game), but the drama wasn’t done yet.

The Rebelles held onto their 4-3 lead deep into the third, but Brooklin tied it up on a penalty shot with 17 seconds left, and then earned a powerplay in overtime.

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But in the end it was Grade 9 student-athlete Mallea McMullen who got to play the hero’s role with the championship-winning goal for Louis-Riel to secure her school’s first OFSAA girls’ hockey title since 2014.

It didn’t long for the high school rookie to make her impact felt as she led the Rebelles in scoring with four goals and four assists in the five of six Louis-Riel tournament games that had recorded statistics.

McMullen, who was also a co-winner of the Ottawa Sports Awards’ beach volleyball player of the year honour for 2023, switched from defence to play forward this season for the Ottawa Lady Sens U15 AA team, which will soon be competing in the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincials from April 11-14.

“Most of our players do play on ‘AA’ hockey teams outside of school, so we knew that we had a group of high-level and high-performing athletes who would give their 110 per cent no matter what,” she highlighted. “Even if they were tired after playing six games, we were still able to leave it all on the ice.”

The Louis-Riel Rebelles went undefeated to win the national capital league title and chose to represent Ottawa at the OFSAA ‘AAA’ level. *Photo: Dan Plouffe*

Tenacity was a key team trait throughout the tournament. The Rebelles clawed their way back from a 4-2 deficit to win 6-4 in their semi-final match against Centre Wellington earlier in the day of the championship game.

“Our team does a really good job of keeping the energy high on the bench and supporting each other regardless of what the score is,” underlined Morissette, a former University of Ottawa Gee-Gees player.

“We placed a lot of emphasis on the importance of mindsets throughout every game,” she added. “Despite the challenges that occurred, we reminded the girls to stay focused and confident in their abilities and that there were no challenges that are too big to overcome. We wanted them to face these challenges head on and not to stress about them too much.

“We also wanted them to enjoy the experience of a tournament of this calibre. The main priority was to enjoy each moment as it comes both on and off the ice.”

OFSAA roundup: Ottawa schools win provincial medals in curling, volleyball, swimming, skiing, wrestling & basketball

The South Carleton Storm gave national capital schools a final podium finish to conclude the OFSAA winter sports championships season, with their provincial girls’ curling bronze medal from the Mar. 20-23 competition in Kingston.

The Storm won all five of their preliminary round matches by at least five points to earn the top seed for the playoff round. South Carleton then downed Napanee 11-9 in the quarter-final and then dropped an 8-7 semi-final to Sudbury’s Marymount before rebounding for a 6-4 win over West Niagara in the bronze medal match.

OFSAA ‘AA’ girls’ volleyball-champion Béatrice-Desloges Bulldogs. *Photo: OFSAA*

Earlier this month, the Béatrice-Desloges Bulldogs won the first OFSAA title in school history at the ‘AA’ girls’ volleyball championships.

Béatrice-Desloges dropped just one set en route to a dominant gold medal performance at the Mar. 4-6 event in Sydenham.

No team had scored more than 15 points in any set against the Bulldogs in the preliminary round until Port Perry stole the second set of their quarter-final match, but B-D still prevailed 25-16, 17-25, 25-12, 25-21.

Neither North Star nor Blakeloak reached 20 points as the Bulldogs cruised to straight-set wins in the semi-finals and championship games.

It was the national capital’s first OFSAA girls’ volleyball championship in a decade, since B-D’s Orleans neighbours at Gisèle-Lalonde capped a run of four straight in 2014.

The Ottawa Sports Pages did not receive a reply to multiple requests for interviews with the Bulldogs.

National capital swimmers earned a total of five medals at the Mar. 5-6 meet at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Complex.

The Ashbury Colts’ Maya Alsarraf, Natalie Shen, Olivia MacNeil and Elle Nakonechny teamed up twice to win junior girls’ high school division medals – first for a silver in the 200-metre medley relay and then for a gold in the 200 m freestyle relay.

Previously a national capital cross-country running champion, Isabella Chiumera of St. Pius captured a bronze medal in the open girls’ 200 m individual medley, while Paul-Desmarais’s Nate Eibner earned silver in the 200 m freestyle high school division, and Merivale’s Evan Custic took bronze in the high school 50 m butterfly.

Local athletes earned three podium performances from the Mar. 5-6 OFSAA wrestling championships in Hannon. Nepean’s Hannah Stoneburg won the silver medal in the girls’ 57.5-kilogram division, while Mother Teresa’s Titus Diceman (boys’ 89 kg) and St. Francis-Xavier’s Mary Ofili (girls’ 115 kg+) were bronze medallists.

The Nepean and Glebe relay teams led the way as local nordic skiers enjoyed a very decorated OFSAA provincials in Lakefield.

The Ashbury Colts, Louis-Riel Rebelles and South Carleton Storm all earned medals in various divisions at the alpine skiing championships in Collingwood.