Monday 7 March 2016

Stars clip Wings in Game 1

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.
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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