Esso Cup gold eludes Stars as Slash repeat as champs

Ashley Messier was named the Stars play of the game in the Esso Cup final.

    The tears became visible in the faces of the Saskatoon Stars seconds after the third period of the Esso Cup final expired.

    Despite pressing in a frantic final minute on Saturday at the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre in Bridgewater, N.S., the Stars couldn’t find an equalizer to send the contest to overtime and the reality that the St. Albert Slash had prevailed 2-1 started to sink in.

    At one end of the rink, the Slash were celebrating history. The Alberta club became the first team to win the Esso Cup twice and in consecutive years in the 10-year history of the female midget AAA hockey national championship tournament.

    The Slash defeated the Quebec based Harfangs du Triolet 1-0 in overtime in last year’s Esso Cup championship game held in Morden, Man., and 10 players from that Slash team returned to be part of this year’s squad.

    The Stars were processing the emotional hurt. They were making their third appearance in the last four years at the Esso Cup and there was a steadfast believe that this would be their season to win it all.

    Saskatoon was 14-0 in the post-season entering Saturday’s game and was riding a 24 game winning streak dating back to the regular season. The Stars last loss before Saturday came back on Jan. 7, when they fell 4-3 to the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Sask.

    Saskatoon was 6-0 at the Esso Cup and had outscored the opposition 28-4 in the process heading into the event’s gold medal game. The Stars had beaten the Slash 4-1 in a round robin contest on Tuesday.

A couple of Stars players console each other after Saturday’s loss.

    In the Esso Cup championship game, the Stars played well in a contest that was tightly contested. The Slash held an 18-15 edge in shots on goal and blocked a large number of other Saskatoon shots.

    During the frantic final minute, Stars standout centre Grace Shirley and slick defender Ashley Messier had prime scoring chances and their shots were blocked by skilled Slash left-winger McKenzie Hewett. The Stars players will likely be replaying those moments in their minds in the hours following the end of Saturday’s contest.

    In the first half of the first period, the Stars came wheeling out of the gate pretty good. Gritty left-winger Jordyn Holmes was stoned by Slash star netminder Camryn Drever on an early chance, and Shirley and standout centre Joelle Fiala fired shots from good positions just wide of the St. Albert goal.

    The Slash started executing their game plan, forechecked the Stars hard and pinned them in their own zone. At the 17:11 mark of the first period, a turnover in the Saskatoon zone landed on the stick of Slash captain Tyra Meropoulis.

    Meropoulis fired a shot on goal, followed the rebound of her own shot, deked around Stars netminder Jordan Ivanco and slid the puck into the Saskatoon cage to give St. Albert a 1-0 lead.

    The Slash kept up their forechecking pressure and trapped the Stars fairly well when the Saskatoon side entered the centre ice zone funneling the advancing skaters to the boards. Stars right-winger Anna Leschyshyn had three shots on goal from solid chances, but she was turned away by Drever.

The Slash celebrate with the Esso Cup.

    Inside of the final minute of the second, the Slash went up 2-0 as a result of their tough forecheck. Meropoulis caused a turnover in the Saskatoon zone and got puck down to linemate Jayme Doyle at the left side of the Saskatoon goal.

    Doyle slid the puck across the face of the Saskatoon net to winger Madison Willan, who put home a backhander to give her side a 2-0 lead.

    Just seconds into the third, the Slash missed the Saskatoon goal on a scoring chance and Stars netminder Jordan Ivanco made a big stop on Willan.

    A short time after that save, Shirley stole the puck from a Slash player at the St. Albert blue-line creating a two-on-run rush. She fed a pass across the face of the St. Albert goal to hard-working forward Kianna Dietz, who knocked the puck into an empty part of the net to cut the Slash lead to 2-1 just 47 seconds into the third.

    With Dietz’s goal coming after a couple of big saves by Ivanco, it felt like the comeback was going to be on. A short time after Dietz’s tally, Stars superstar captain Mackenna Parker, who was named the MVP and was the leading scorer of the Esso Cup, was stopped in close.

    The Stars controlled play for most of the third period holding a 6-2 edge in shots on goal. Saskatoon had a number of other shots get blocked.

    Slash centre Shyla Kirwer came up with two key shot blocks on Shirley and Messier, when the Stars were working on the power play in the second half of the third.

    Defender Mackenzie Butz was named the player of the game for the Slash, while Messier took that same honour for the Stars.

Grace Shirley set up the Stars goal on Saturday.

    Drever made 14 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Slash. Ivanco made a number of quality stops turning away 16 shot taking the setback in goal for the Stars.

    Earlier in the day, the Pionnieres de Lanaudiere from Quebec slipped past the Brampton Canadettes from Ontario 2-1 in the bronze medal game.

    The Stars finished the 2017-18 campaign with a 44-7-1 overall record, and one of their losses was a tight one to a good team in a national final. The Slash finished the 2017-18 campaign with a 43-11-1 overall record and sport a 13-1 mark over the last two years at the Esso Cup.

    For the Stars, the hurt is there at the end of the game because the journey to get to the national championship contest was meaningful. Saturday marked the Stars 52^nd game, and the team stated on Twitter they have been together for eight months, 143 days and 82 practices.

    When the season ends, you reflect on everything that happened over that period of time. With the success the Stars had, the team gets pulled that much closer together.

    Entering the national final, everyone on the team believed they were going to win that game. When the win doesn’t happen, it is tough to take, because you reflect on the journey to get there.

    Overlooked is the fact the season was extremely successful, and it is a major accomplishment in any campaign to play in a national championship game. That in itself makes the season a success.

    For most of the Stars, their bonds go beyond what happened this season. Parker, Dietz, Holmes, Jordyn Gerlitz, Jordan Ivanco and Dana Wood all exhausted their midget eligibility with the end of Saturday’s game.

    Parker, Dietz, Holmes, Gerlitz, who wasn’t able to play in this year’s Esso Cup due to a broken collarbone, and Shirley were with the Stars in all of their Esso Cup appearances. Shirley was an associate player call up in the 2015 Esso Cup in Red Deer, Alta.

    Gerlitz will go down as the first Stars player to score a Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship series clinching goal, when the Stars won their first SFMAAAHL title in 2015. That group grew up before your eyes over the last four years from all the experiences they went through together.

Captain Mackenna Parker and the Stars had a memorable season.

    Ivanco, Wood, Leschyshyn and Fiala have been with the Stars since the start of the 2015-16 season. Messier, Kaitlin Jockims, Grace Tam, Chace Sperling, Jayda Sachs, Abby DeCorby and Arden Kliewer all finished their second complete season with team.

    Calli Arnold, Makena Kushniruk and Emily Holmes, who is Jordyn Holmes’ younger sister, were the fresh faced rookies who were quickly adopted into the Stars family by the veterans. They all played big roles on the team as the season progressed.

    The Stars came up just short in basking in the euphoria of a national championship win. At some point in time, the hurt over the disappointment of the setback will lessen.

    The memories and experiences that came from the accomplishments made along the way to get there can never be taken away.

    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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