Friday, 27 April 2018

Stars punch ticket to Esso Cup gold medal game

Saskatoon to play in national final for first time ever

Arden Kliewer stopped 23 shots in goal for the Stars on Friday.
    Arden Kliewer gave the Saskatoon Stars the traction they needed to earn the right to play for a national title.
    Often, those that play goal for the Stars are overlooked as the powerhouse club from the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League is best known for offence. Early in an Esso Cup tournament semifinal game on Friday at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre in Bridgewater, N.S., the Stars needed Kliewer to be sharp.
    The sophomore netminder, who turned 16 in February, made a number of key stops early as the Pionnieres de Lanaudiere from Quebec took a quick 1-0 lead. Kliewer’s performance allowed the time for the Stars offence to get on track.
    In the second period, the Stars burst out to score four times to go ahead 4-1 and cruised from that point to a 5-1 victory.
    With the win, Saskatoon advances to the gold medal game of the Esso Cup female midget AAA hockey national championship tournament for the first time in team history. They will face the defending champion St. Albert Slash from Alberta in the final.
    The Slash outlasted the Brampton Canadettes from Ontario 2-1 after a tiebreaking shootout in Friday’s other semifinal.
    The gold medal game will be played on Saturday and show live on TSN at 4 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
    In the clash between Saskatoon and Lanaudiere, the Pionnieres got off to a big start early. Just 2:38 into the first period, centre Maya Labad broke down the right wing into the Saskatoon zone on a rush and wired home a shot to the top left corner of the Stars goal to give the Pionnieres a 1-0 lead.
    The Quebec side had a couple of other big chances to extend the lead in the opening 20 minutes.
Grace Shirley had the Stars first two goal on Friday.
    Labad was robbed on a breakaway by Kliewer, and Kliewer turned away another dangerous drive from the point that came through a screen of bodies in front of the Saskatoon goal.
    Just 45 seconds into the second, Kliewer stoned the Pionnieres on a dangerous two-on-one chance.
    After that stop, the Stars proceeded up ice and Grace Shirley wired home a shot to the top left corner of the Pionnieres goal to force a 1-1 tie at the 1:24 mark of the frame. From that point, the Stars hit high gear.
    At the 12:22 mark of the second period, the Stars broke into the Pionnieres zone on a two-on-one break. Left-winger Jordyn Holmes broke down the left wing with the puck and fed a pass across the front of the Pionnieres goal to Shirley, who quickly roofed a shot to the top right corner of the net to give the Stars a 2-1 lead.
    Just 22 seconds later, superstar captain Mackenna Parker scored to put the Stars up 3-1. Before the second ended, Parker wired home her second tally of the game in close to the top left corner of the Pionnieres goal to put the Stars up 4-1.
    After the Stars fourth goal, the Pionnieres pulled starting goalie Leila Cecilia Lotke Salinas, who stopped 16-of-20 shots sent her way. Sarah Vanier turned away 12-of-13 shots playing the rest of the way in relief.
    Kliewer came up with a couple of big saves in the third to protect the Stars three-goal edge. She turned away Pionnieres centre Ann-Frederik Naud on a rush and denied Labad on a short-handed breakaway.
    Shortly after the breakaway stop on Labad, Stars 16-year-old veteran defender Abby DeCorby blasted home a power-play goal to put the final touches on the Saskatoon victory. Stars skilled sophomore left-winger Kaitlin Jockims picked up her third assist of the contest on DeCorby’s goal.
    Kliewer stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for Saskatoon in one of her best performances of the season helping the Stars improve their record at this year’s Esso Cup to 6-0. The Pionnieres fell to 2-3-1 at the Esso Cup with the setback.
Kaitlin Jockims had three assists for the Stars on Friday.
    The Pionnieres fell to 2-3-1 at the Esso Cup with the setback. They will face the Canadettes (3-3) in a bronze medal game to be held on Saturday.
    Saskatoon fell in its two other semifinal appearances at the Esso Cup. At the 2015 tournament in Red Deer, Alta., the Stars dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 decision after a tiebreaking shootout to the host Chiefs. At the 2016 Esso Cup in Weyburn, Sask., the Stars came out on the wrong end of a 4-0 score to the Brantford Ice Cats from Ontario, who moved on to win the event’s championship game.
    With their win on Friday, the Stars improve their overall record to 44-6-1 in the 2017-18 campaign and have a perfect 14-0 record in the post-season. Including action from the regular season and post-season, the Stars have won their last 24 straight games.
    The Stars are trying to become the first Saskatchewan based team to win the Esso Cup’s gold medal game since the Weyburn Gold Wings in 2014.
    The Slash improved to 5-1 at this year’s Esso Cup. They dropped a preliminary round contest to the Stars 4-1 on Tuesday. That was St. Albert’s only setback at the Esso Cup in the past two years, and the Slash are 12-1 at the female midget AAA hockey national championship tournament during that time.

Parker, Messier take home individual tourney awards

Mackenna Parker was named the MVP of the Esso Cup.
    In what has been an outstanding season, more accolades came the way of the Saskatoon Stars on Friday.
    Two members of the Stars took home three of the Esso Cup’s major individual awards. Superstar captain Mackenna Parker was named the tournament’s most valuable player and claimed the top scorer award on the basis of round robin play.
    Parker led all scorers in the preliminary round with five goals and six assists for 11 points in five games. With Friday’s semifinal games in the books, Parker still topped the tournament in scoring with 13 points coming off seven goals and six assists.
    Ashley Messier took home the award as the top defender at the Esso Cup. Messier had a goal and five assists in the Stars five preliminary round games, and she had a goal and six assists in six contests overall at the female midget AAA national hockey championship tournament.
    McKenzie Hewitt of the St. Albert Slash claimed honours as the top forward at the Esso Cup. She has four goals and two assists in six overall games at this year’s Esso Cup.
    Forward Paige Whaley of the Brampton Canadettes was named the tourney’s most sportsmanlike player. Sarah Vanier of the Pionnieres de Lanaudiere was named the event’s top goaltender.

Stars join select company with coming TV appearance

The U of R Cougars played in the 2001 U Sports final shown on TSN.
    When the Saskatoon Stars hit the ice for Saturday’s gold medal game at the Esso Cup female midget AAA hockey national championship tournament, it is believe they will be the fourth high level female hockey team from Saskatchewan to play in a national championship game on national television.
    The Stars gold medal game will be shown at 4 p.m. Saskatchewan time on TSN.
    It is believed the University of Regina Cougars Women’s Hockey Team was the first high level female hockey team from Saskatchewan to play in a national final in television. The Cougars fell 4-3 in the U Sports women’s championship final in 2001 to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues Women’s Hockey Team in a nationally televised game on TSN. At the time, U Sports was known as the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union.
    At the 2010 Esso Cup in Regina, the Notre Dame Hounds from Wilcox, Sask., made it to the championship game shown on TSN and fell 4-3 to Thunder Bay Queens from Ontario.
    The Hounds returned to the Esso Cup’s championship game in 2011 in St. Albert, Alta., and posted a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Thunder in a nationally televised game on TSN.
    The Weyburn Gold Wings are the third high level female team from Saskatchewan to appear in a national final on national television. The Gold Wings downed the Thunder 2-1 in the 2014 Esso Cup championship game held in Hamilton, Ont., and that contest was also shown on TSN.

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