Wildcats take 1-0 lead in SFMAAAHL title
series
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| Anna Leschyshyn drives hard to the goal for the Stars. |
The Saskatoon Stars don’t normally dig themselves into big
holds, but the one they dug on Sunday night cost them the opening game of the
Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship series.
Opening the series at home at the Agriplace Arena, the Stars
fell behind 4-1 to the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats heading into the
second intermission. The hosts made a furious rally scoring twice in the third,
but the Wildcats were able to close out a 4-3 victory in Game 1 of the
best-of-five series.
The Wildcats got the jump on the Stars from the opening
faceoff and controlled play throughout the first period. At the 6:13 mark of
the first, the Wildcats opened the game’s scoring when rookie forward Brooklyn
Colburn potted her first goal of the post-season. That tally seemed to knock
the Stars back on their heels for a good part of the first two periods.
With 3.3 seconds to play in the first, Swift Current added a
dagger of an insurance goal, when Kayla Kirwan picked up her first marker of
the post-season to go along with seven assists. Swift Current outshot Saskatoon
17-8 in the opening 20 minutes.
The visitor’s surge didn’t end there. At the 6:17 mark of
the second, Wildcats winger Kaci Jones scored to give her side a 3-0 edge.
The Stars managed to halt the bleeding for a short moment,
when Jordyn Gerlitz popped her first of the post-season just 37 seconds after
Jones’ goal to cut the Wildcats edge to 3-1.
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| Josee Casavant, right, celebrates her goal with Kate Scidmore. |
Swift Current resorted its three-goal edge with 3:05 to play
in the second. Breaking into the Stars zone on a two-on-one rush, Wildcats
winger Kate Scidmore slipped a smart pass over to linemate Josee Casavant,
which sprung her on a breakaway. Casavant tucked home her fourth goal of the
playoffs to give the Wildcats a 4-1 edge.
Shortly after that goal, Wildcats star forward Chloe Smith
had a breakaway chance, but she was denied by Stars netminder Emma Johnson.
In the third, the Stars, who are the defending SFMAAAHL
champs, started to hit their stride. They cut the Wildcats lead to 4-2, when
offensive defender Willow Slobodzian blasted home a point-shot goal on the
power play.
With 7:04 to play in the third, the Stars pinned the
Wildcats in their zone for a long stretch that resulted in a goal from Abby
Shirley to further cut Swift Current’s lead to 4-3.
Saskatoon almost found the equalizer a short time after
Shirley’s goal. Power forward Anna Leschyshyn, who already stands 5-foot-10 at
age 14, muscled her way past a Wildcats defender on a one-on-one rush for a
scoring chance, but she was stoned by 17-year-old veteran goalie Jasey Book.
Book, who has committed to play for the University of
Saskatchewan Huskies women’s team in the fall, made 29 stops to earn the win in
goal for Swift Current. Johnson turned away 27 shots to take the loss in
Saskatoon’s net.
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| Stars goalie Emma Johnson stops Wildcats forward Janessa Fournier. |
The Stars topped the SFMAAAHL regular season standings with
a 24-4 mark, while the Wildcats were second with a 19-6-3 record. Saskatoon won
all four head-to-head regular season meetings between the two clubs, but the
all of those encounters came before Dec. 1, 2015.
Game 2 of the SFMAAAHL championship series is set for
Wednesday in Swift Current for a 7 p.m. start at the Fairview Arena. Game 3
will be in Saskatoon on Thursday for a 6:15 p.m. start at the Agriplace Arena.
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