Apr 19, 2022 3 min read

Though the temperature was cool to say the least, and Svetlana Yarosh was wearing about 20 pounds of equipment, she still promised to show off her swimming style under the right conditions on this day.

The right condition showed up just 23 seconds into an overtime hockey game against the Arizona Kachinas. Yarosh found herself alone at center ice, two or three steps behind the defense of the Kachinas after a shot on goal was blocked and retrieved by forward Laura Crnarich. Her outlet pass was perfect, hitting Yarosh in stride, and she beat goalie Sophia Villaneuva for the game-winning goal on the team’s 33rd shot.

The goal set off a wild celebration and sent Yarosh to the ice, belly-flopping, then using her arms in a swimming-like motion. She didn’t stop skidding along until the raucous players on her team caught up for her to perform the traditional dogpile on the ice.

The Steel City Selects 19-Under had a 1-0 victory and the Girls Tier II national championship, the first in the history of the hockey program.

“They won the faceoff and got it,” said Yarosh, a senior at Canon-McMillan High School, “They tried a shot and hit (Crnarich). She went up the middle of the defense and threw the puck up to me on a breakaway.”

Yarosh’s wrist shot found the back of the net. Game over. A long season, that started in August, was over with a 44-5-5 record.

“I couldn’t believe I did that,” Yarosh said. “I was excited and overwhelmed at the same time.”

Goalie Casey Frank stopped eight shots for the shutout.

The grueling tournament, which saw six games in five days from the 12-team field, was held in West Chester.

This wasn’t the only one-goal game Steel City played. In the quarterfinals, Crnarich scored the game-winner in a 5-4 victory over the Adirondack North Stars.

Yarosh was one of three local players on the team. Forward Kaleigh Hurd is home schooled and lives in Washington and defenseman Danielle Karol recently graduated from Canon-McMillan and is a freshman at Robert Morris University.

“The majority of the team last year, U16, finished runner-up,” said Steel City Selects 19U head coach Jim Black. “They all moved up to U19. The silver last year was the best the organization did at nationals to that point. I saw this team coming.”

Black said the Steel City Selects dominated the game but couldn’t get the goal in regulation.

“I talked with (Yarosh) before the overtime,” Black said. “She had a lot of chances in the game but this time she had the right frame of mind to put the game away.”