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| The Stars celebrate a third period goal from Jordyn Holmes, right. |
A tougher opponent proved to be no problem at all for the
Saskatoon Stars.
The Stars opened their best-of-five Saskatchewan Female
Midget AAA Hockey League semifinal series with a 5-0 victory over the Weyburn
Southern Range Gold Wings at the Agriplace Arena on Monday night.
In the quarter-final round, the Stars swept a best-of-five
series 3-0 against the Battlefords Sharks, who were 3-23-2 during the regular
season. The Stars outscored the Sharks 28-3 in that series.
Weyburn finished fourth overall in the SFMAAAHL regular
season with an 18-9-1 record, and the Gold Wings are still expected to give the
Stars, who topped the league regular season standings with a 24-4 record, a tough
test. The Gold Wings also host the Esso Cup national championship tournament in
April.
In Monday’s series opener, the Stars jumped ahead 1-0 at the
11:14 mark of the first period on what appeared to be a lucky break goal by Rayna
Jacobson. The officials weren’t sure Jacobson poked the puck in the net during
a scrum of sticks around the Weyburn goal, but they awarded a tally after a
conference discussion.
With 61 seconds to play in the first, Julia Rongve put the
Stars up 2-0 on a wraparound, where the puck just trickled out from under Gold
Wings goalie Chantel Burke into the net.
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| Mackenna Parker potted the Stars third goal in their win on Monday. |
Mackenna Parker, who was the second leading scorer in the
SFMAAAHL, put the Stars up 3-0 early in the second. Abby Shirley converted a
fancy passing play from linemates Grace Shirley and Joelle Fiala to give the
Stars a 4-0 edge heading into the second intermission.
Jordyn Holmes added Saskatoon’s final goal late in the
third.
Emma Johnson made 14 stops to earn her fifth career shutout
in SFMAAAHL post-season play for Saskatoon. Chantal Burke turned away 40 shots
taking the loss in goal for Weyburn.
The Stars and Gold Wings will go at it again in Game 2 of
the series on Friday in Weyburn. Game 3 is set for Sunday at 4:45 p.m. at the
Agriplace Arena. If necessary, Game 4 is set for Tuesday, March 15 in Weyburn
and Game 5 would be on Wednesday, March 16 at the Agriplace Arena at a time to
be determined.
Saskatoon won three of the four games against Weyburn in the
regular season.
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