As the sole Burnaby player at this year's Esso Cup midget girls' national hockey championships, Michelle Toor would like nothing better than to prove herself in front of her hometown fans.
"From the very beginning of the season, we wanted to earn our way to the nationals and to prove ourselves," said Toor, a 16year-old defender on the host and B.C. champion Fraser Valley Phantom.
Toor, a Grade 11 St. Thomas More student, played on the Phantom at last year's Pacific regional championship, losing out to the eventual national bronze medallist, Edmonton Thunder, on a late third-period goal.
At this year's Mac's AAA midget tournament in Calgary, the Phantom came within a power-play goal of defeating the Saskatoon Stars, a team that eventually lost to the Thunder in the event final.
The Phantom was unlucky at the Mac's, fashioning a solid 3-1 overall record, but missing a berth in the championship round on a tournament tie-break rule to a team with an inferior record.
Couple that with the fact that most provincial girls' hockey programs in Canada are years ahead of that in B.C., and you have the makings for a David and Goliath undertaking.
"It makes us want to play harder and work as hard as we can to catch up with the east coast," said Toor, who led all defenders with nine goals and 13 assists in league play this season. "We wanted to make a goal of making it to the semifi-nals."
For Toor, it is a struggle she has seemingly been preparing for since she first donned hockey blades as a five-year-old at Burnaby Minor.
There, she played on Burnaby's then one-and-only girls' team, which included players as old as 12 and 13.
When Toor was seven, she switched over to boys' hockey for four years before coming back to the girls' game.
"It's always made me challenge myself to play better," she said.
Toor, who posted two assists in the Phantom's 5-1 series-winning victory over Thompson-Okanagan Rockets in the best-of-three midget girls' final in Surrey last Saturday, says spectators to the Esso Cup tournament are in for some fast and physical hockey.
"Our team is really fast. We use our speed to our advantage very well and we've improved our shooting and passing," Toor added. "We hope to redeem ourselves from last year."
The Phantom will get that chance in its opening game at the Esso Cup, when it meets the Thunder at the Bill Copeland Sports Centre on Sunday, April 21.
Canada West has won the last two Esso Cups.
