 |
| Grace Shirley scored the OT winner for the Stars on Sunday. |
With that said, it should come as no surprise the Saskatoon
Stars captain hit another major milestone on an overtime winning goal.
On Sunday afternoon with the Stars locked in a 2-2 tie with
the Prince Albert Northern Bears at Merlis Belsher Place, Shirley drove home
the winning goal on the power play from the front of the Bears net with 72
seconds remaining in the extra session. Shirley’s goal gave the Stars a 3-2
victory, and she became just the third player to score 80 career regular season
goals in the history of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League.
 |
| Grace Shirley, left, celebrates her OT winning goal with Joelle Fiala (#27) |
“I guess it is
pretty cool,” said Shirley. “I like didn’t realize it or anything.
“It is kind of nice
to hear that. I’m just happy that we got the win, because I definitely think we
deserved it.”
The other players
that scored 80 or more regular season goals in the history of the SFMAAAHL were
Olivia Howe, who piled up 107 goals in 106 regular season games playing for the
Notre Dame Hounds from 2008 to 2012, and Shirley’s former Stars teammate
Mackenna Parker, who collected 82 goals in 104 regular season games. Parker graduated from the Stars as their captain at the
end of last season.
 |
| Paris Oleksyn scored the Bears first goal on Sunday. |
Stars head coach
Greg Slobodzian said he never stops being amazed by his talented captain.
“She (Shirley) is
definitely a player that likes to rise to the occasion,” said Slobodzian. “She
has done it for us a few times in overtime.
“She did it again.
As soon as it went in, my assistant coaches looked at me and said, ‘Wow, great
move.’ Her in front of the net like that, there are pretty good odds it is
going in.”
Shirley admitted the
moment of scoring her 80th career regular season goal was made more
memorable because it came in overtime against the Bears, who are the Stars
biggest rivals.
 |
| Abby Soyko drives home the Bears second goal on Sunday. |
“They are a really
good team,” said Shirley. “They battled hard.
“It was definitely a
close game. It was nice to get the win over them for sure.”
Sunday’s game had a
few changes in momentum.
The Stars went ahead
1-0 in the first period on a goal from forward Kaitlin Jockims.
The Bears jumped in
front 2-1 scoring twice in a span of 83 seconds near the midway point of the
second period. Prince Albert’s tallies came off the sticks of Paris Oleksyn and
captain Abby Soyko, who scored off a hard drive to the Saskatoon net.
 |
| Ashley Messier had the equalizer for the Stars on Sunday. |
The two sides played
through a scoreless third to set things up for Shirley’s heroics in overtime.
Kaitlyn Cadrain made
28 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Stars. Scout Anderson turned away 30
shots to take the overtime setback in the Bears net.
The Stars improved
to 10-0 with the win, while the Bear record moved to 5-4-1.
Saskatoon and Prince
Albert went at it on Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place with the Stars posting a
6-0 victory.
Slobodzian expected
a push back by the Bears in Sunday’s clash.
 |
| Goalie Kaitlyn Cadrain makes one of her 28 saves in goal for the Stars. |
“Today was the exact
same. P.A. came and gave us what I expected. Their goaltender played well.
“Those are the types
of games that you want to play. I wish we were playing those games every day.
That is how you get better as a group.”
In Saturday’s 6-0
win by the Stars, Shirley and Chace Sperling each had a goal and an assist for
Saskatoon. Anna Leschyshyn, Kaylee Baun, Calli Arnold and Jayda Sachs all had
singles for the Stars.
Jockims and Abby
DeCorby had two assists each to help power the Saskatoon side.
 |
| Grace Shirley has scored 80 career regular season goals. |
“We just have to
come into our second game more focused and not thinking it is going to be easy,”
said Shirley. “Every game, you need to put your best foot forward and just go
hard all the time.
“I think we just
need to come into every game more focused and just with the mindset to work
hard and kind of even finish off stronger than our first game. I think that
will be something we work on for sure. We’ll take the two wins for sure here.”
The Stars return to
action this coming Saturday when they host the Weyburn Richardson Pioneer Gold
Wings at 2:15 p.m. at Merlis Belsher Place.
The Bears next game
is Nov. 24, when they host the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats at 7 p.m.
at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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