Burnaby hockey star Michelle Toor bid adieu to the Fraser Valley Phantom this week in the most fitting way possible – playing with them one last time at the 2014 Esso Cup in Ontario.
Toor, a senior at St. Thomas More, has been with the Midget AAA girls’ hockey team since 2011, where she’s led the defence in scoring two years in a row. The Burnaby native scored six goals this season and assisted on 20 more, including one of the goals that led the Phantom to a 2-0 victory over the Thompson Okanagan Rockets in the first game of a best-of-three B.C. championship series earlier this month.
The Phantom followed their 2-0 win with a 1-0 in the second game, defeating the Rockets and earning themselves a spot in the Esso Cup, the national Midget AAA girls’ championship tournament April 20 to 23.
“It’s exciting that I get to spend my last year with a good ending – going to nationals,” Toor said.
This is the second year in a row the Phantom have played in the Esso Cup. Last year, the national championship was held in Burnaby, giving Toor the chance to play at home in front of her family and friends.
“It was disappointing; we had high expectations to make it at east to the final four but fell a little short,” she told the NOWlast week.
The Phantom were eliminated early on, losing 1-0 against Ontario’s North Bay Ice Boltz in the preliminary round of play.
“It taught us to make sure that we play hard every game. We play a full 60 minutes, and no letting up, because last year we didn’t make it into the final four because of one goal,” she said.
The Phantom kicked off the Esso Cup against pacific rivals Edmonton Thunder on Sunday afternoon in Stoney Creek, Ont. Edmonton beat the Phantom last season in the pacific championships, winning a spot in the 2013 Esso Cup.
“We played them in the regionals and then we played them last year in the Esso Cup,” she said. “We’ve been practising some systems to play against them, and we’ve been watching them for the last three years, so hopefully we’ll be ready.”
But despite a hard-fought game on Sunday – the Phantom out shot Edmonton 34 to 33 – the B.C. girls weren’t able to take down the Thunder.
With less than five minutes to go in the final period of the game, Edmonton defenceman Jessica Healey managed to sneak one by Phantom goalie Valencia Yordanov to make it 1-0 for the Thunder.
The Phantom faced Esso Cup host Stoney Creek on Monday and came up short once again, losing 3-0in the evening game.
Stoney Creek outshot the Phantom 31 to 18 and marked goals in each of the three periods – two of which were scored during the Sabres’ power play.
By losing the Stoney Creek game, the Phantom were eliminated from the playoff round of the national competition.
Toor said the biggest thing she wanted to focus on going into the Esso Cup was playing as a team and putting the team before her own glory.
“I try not to be selfish and hold on to the puck. I tend to pass more than I shoot but I was the leading goal-scorer for the defence this year and last year so I choose when I (shoot),” she said laughing.
Toor is among nine senior players on the Phantom this season who will be aging out of the Midget AAA league.
She has had a successful career with the Phantom. Last season she was sixth overall in scoring with nine goals, and she also made it into the top five for both assists and total points overall. While this season she scored only six goals, she was second overall in assists and fourth overall in total points.
For Toor, the most memorable moments with the Phantom were the bus rides to away games. The team spent hours upon hours together on a bus, which brought them all very close, Toor said.
The Grade 12 student graduates from STM in June and she has already committed to playing college hockey for Castleton State College of Vermont, where she plans on studying social sciences.
