A Fort Saskatchewan ringette team battled through a tough injury to win gold over the weekend.
The U16 Fort Saskatchewan ICE were in Hinton last weekend to take part in the Friends on Ice tournament.
The team sailed through their first two games, winning both to advance into a pivotal gold-medal match against Hinton, the host team.
Things started off fine, but disaster struck for the ICE about halfway in.
"We actually had a player get tripped and get hurt quite bad," said Sophia Benoit, the team manager. "We had to call an ambulance in to get her removed from the ice and taken to the hospital."
The game was tied 2-2 and a lengthy delay occurred as they took care of the injured player.
After seeing one of their own teammates get badly injured, Benoit says the team had a choice to make during the delay.
"They gave them the choice to have no shame and walk away or we could back out there," said Benoit. "The girls decided to come back out and finish the game and dedicated the game to her."
The decision turned out to be the right one as the ICE came back out and won the gold medal by a tight score of 5-4.
"They also gave the Heart & Hustle [award] to [the injured player]," said Benoit. "We dropped off her medal and the Heart & Hustle."
Benoit thinks the move to continue playing in honour of their fallen teammate showed a lot of maturity.
"These girls have played together since they were young," said Benoit. "To be that selfless, to put their feelings aside and say, 'we're going to do this for her' showed that we have some great girls."
The injured player is now out of hospital and is recovering at home.