The Battlefords Sharks are still in search of their first win of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League season.
But if their play at the Battleford Arena on Sunday afternoon is any indication, the elusive taste of victory is just around the corner.
After a tough 6-2 setback a night earlier, the Sharks were in a spirited battle in a rematch with the Notre Dame Hounds, but came up just short by a score of 3-2 in a shootout.
“It was a good game from start to finish and we had our chances for sure,” Sharks head coach Gary Berggren said.
“We’re having trouble around the net at the moment when it comes to finishing on our chances, but we’re seeing progress in that part of our game.”
The Sharks, who out-shot the Hounds 54-39 over the course of 70 minutes, held a 2-1 lead going into the third period thanks to power play goals from Ali Aitken and Jordan Kulbida.
Raine Smith found the back of the net with 5:31 remaining in the third period to tie the game up, with both sides then trading chances of the course of two five-minute overtime periods in an attempt to break the deadlock.
The Sharks had a gorgeous chance in the third round of the shootout to win the game, but Jaici Wiegers shot ended up ringing off of the goal post.
Kendra Zuchotzki made a nice move on the very next attempt to give the Hounds their third straight victory.
“I feel like we are right there, especially when it comes to our goal scoring,” Berggren said.
“If you look at our power play, we were able to score two goals on Sunday, and that’s something we weren’t able to do in the last few games. That’s something we’ve been working on improving here over the last week, and although it is improving, you can’t work on everything so there’s more we can improve on.”
Both goaltenders were stellar in Sunday’s game, as Cassidy Gronemeyer made 52 saves in the win for the Hounds and Chantel Weller turned aside 37 shots for the Sharks.
Saturday’s game was much closer than the final score would indicate, as the Sharks out-shot the Hounds 42-31.
The difference in the contest came during a second period power play for the home team, as the Hounds scored two short-handed goals in a 10-second span.
“That really set us back,” Berggren said. “I felt like we outplayed them and we got a lot of shots on goal, we just had trouble putting the puck in the net.
“I thought we had a really strong third period but when you give up two short-handed goals, it’s really tough to come back.”
Jessie Herner and Kulbida scored for the Sharks in the loss, while Chloe Burt made 25 saves.
Tana Terry led the way for the Hounds with a pair of goals and Kaitlyn Ross turned aside 40 shots to earn the win.
The Sharks, who have a 0-4-0-1 record, will return to the Battleford Arena this weekend, when they’ll host the Regina Rebels for a pair of games.
“They have a really good top line and we’ll have to key in on them,” Berggren said.
“They are another fast team so we’ll need to be physical once again in order to slow them down.”
The two sides will meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday before taking to the ice at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
