After starting 2-0 on the season, victories for the AAA Sharks have come few and far between.
Saturday, in front of a packed crowd at Battleford Arena, the Sharks snapped their losing streak, beating the Melville Prairie Fire 5-2.
“It was about time,” Head coach Ashley Rafuse said with a smile. “The girls felt good about that one, I think they deserved to win, they have been plugging away every game and it finally went our way for once. We were pretty proud of them for doing that. We were hoping we could come out and sweep the weekend.”
The ladies played a strong game in front of netminder Chloe Marshall, who stopped 25 of 27 shots on the night. Rafuse is ecstatic with how both veteran netminders have pulled together to keep the the Sharks in plenty of games this season.
“Both of our goalies being grade 12 goalies, from what I’ve seen, they are really great at bouncing back. They don’t get bothered by too much, that’s exactly why we leave them in there and let them play it out.”
The Sharks jumped out in front in the opening frame putting together a series of quality scoring chances, capitalizing on them both. Keara Amson now has six tallies on the season after scoring two on Saturday and another Sunday. The first one was an important one, as it kicked off the first of five goals for the ladies. Rookie Jordan Kulbida, who has shown some great vision on the ice this year, registered her 6th assist.
Three first year players then got in on the action. Tiffani Empey kept the ball rolling late in the first period depositing her first career SMFAAAHL goal to give the Sharks a two goal advantage. Dakota Peterson and Alyssa Roach collaborated on the mark.
Melville got on the board late in the opening 20 minutes, courtesy of Regan Nichol. The lead was cut down to one, but that wouldn’t last for long.
Amson restored the two-goal led with her second of the game, three minutes into the middle stanza.
Rookie Morgan Lamontagne got into the action soon after, giving the Battlefords a 4-1 lead with her second of the season. Peterson registered her second assist on the night, giving her three in 2015.
The Prairie Fire cut the lead back down to two with a mark from Mackenzie Balogh, but the Sharks continued to battle.
Breanna Hemmelgarn, who is usually a reserve, put the game away, scoring her first of the year.
Rafuse said after the tilt that it wasn’t just about the tremendous play from the Sharks, but the energy they received from the large audience on hand.
“The big thing for us too, is that if we get fans out coming to support us and coming to support the girls, they really thrive off of that and that’s why they always play really well on Saturday because they get a bigger crowd.”
Sunday was a little different in the back-to-back series. Although the Sharks managed to keep the quality chances and scoring rolling, it was the defence that suffered in a 5-3 loss.
“We’ve been working to get offence going because that’s where we’ve been struggling lately, but now we have to start tightening up on our defence as well.” Rafuse said.
Shelby Tornato had a tremendous game in between the pipes for the Sharks, kicking away 43 of 48 shots and was the main reason why the game didn’t get out of hand.
Amson was an offensive spark plug once again, scoring a goal from Kulbida and Taylor Fiske to tie the game at one goal each.
Melville tallied four unanswered with the fifth goal leaving almost no chance for Tornato to make the stop. Balogh intercepted a pass deep inside the Sharks zone. The turnover lead to a short side snipe from the right hashmark, just under the glove of the netminder.
The Sharks responded five minutes later on the power play. Brittany Yeager capitalized on a nice cross-crease pass from Lamontagne, snapping a shot past the outstretched left pad of Macey MacDonald and into the back of the net.
Although wins have been hard to come by this year, Rafuse wants her girls to stay positive and to make a run come playoff time.
“We have a good group of girls. Any team that has been losing as much as we have, there’s frustrations that come with it. As coaches we just have to keep reminding them, keep learning and keep working hard in practice and it’ll transfer over into a game. Hopefully we can come alive here in the second half.”
The Sharks break for Christmas and are back in action January 9 in Regina.
