Estevan Power Dodge bantam A Chargers’ forwards Ireland Biette and Marci LeBlanc tallied four points each and Brittney Klassen scored three of her own in the club’s 8-2 win over the Wood River Ice Cats at the Civic Auditorium on Saturday.
Biette got the Chargers on the board only six seconds after the Ice Cats’ Chloe Forest opened the scoring when she banged home a rebound from in close past Estevan goaltender Myah Battersby at the 3:15 mark of the first period. LeBlanc made it 2-1 Estevan a little over five minutes into the frame on a wrist shot from the hashmarks that went low glove side on Wood River goalie Bynn Zahariuk.
After helping set up LeBlanc, the Chargers’ Klassen put the home side up by two 51 seconds later on a backhand from 10 feet out off a feed from the former. LeBlanc and Klassen scored one more each, between a goal by Wood River’s Emily Stewart, with Hanna Jaworski gaining a helper on both Chargers’ goals to come out of the first 20 minutes with a 5-2 lead.
LeBlanc scored the hat trick marker two minutes and 19 seconds into the second frame on a wrist shot from the faceoff dot that sparked a change in the Wood River net with Amaya Giraudier taking over the visitor’s goaltending duties. Giraudier made a number of highlight reel saves with the Chargers pressing hard in the remainder of the middle period, but would only allow goals from Kenzie Baton, on a backhand shot from the hashmarks that went five-hole, and Sara Eggen, who scored on the power play off Biette’s third helper of the period. Neither team found the back of the net in the final 20 minutes.
“We started out skating hard and fore-checking hard, (but) towards the end of the game that drifted off,” said Chargers head coach Kent McLellan. “We need to improve on moving the puck through the neutral zone and in their end and getting the puck out of our end. Breaking out is (what) we need to improve on. It’s coming, slowly.”
The win over Wood River, as well as a subsequent 8-3 victory over the Ice Cats at the Civic Auditorium the next day, gives the Chargers a 5-7 record heading into their final two games before the Christmas break. Estevan will head to Wood River (3-10-1) to play the Ice Cats at Lafleche Community Centre on Saturday before travelling to Moose Jaw to play the 12-1 Mavericks at Pla-Mor Palace Bert Hunt Sunday afternoon.
“The next (two games) are critical,” said McLellan. “I’d like to go into the Christmas break close to .500 or .500 if we can get there. To get to 7-7 before Christmas would be awesome. Coming up against Moose Jaw for our last game, they’re tops in the league, but we have beat them once. It’ll be a good battle.”
