The Estevan Power Tech midget AA Panthers are at a crossroads and it’s up to the players to decide which path they want to travel.
The Panthers earned one of a possible four points against the Regina Capitals (12-5-7) last weekend and they can consider themselves lucky to get out of it that well. The Capitals began their road trip in Estevan by cruising to a 4-0 win over the Panthers on Jan. 28 before outshooting and outworking the home side in a 2-2 draw at Affinity Place the next afternoon.
“We’re struggling to find team play,” said Panthers coach Trevor Morrison. “The coaching staff is stressing a lot of team play and we just haven’t got there yet. We showed signs earlier in the year, but we’re just not playing at a high level right now. Hopefully we can get there in the next couple of weeks before playoffs and provincials.”
Panthers centre Michaella Matthies opened the scoring 6:40 into the first period while the teams skated four-on-four by picking up a Makenna Morrison back pass, driving to the net and snipping a shot high glove side on Capitals goalie Makayla Wickstrom. The Regina squad seemed to find an extra gear after the marker winning the majority of the puck battles and taking the play to the Panthers for the rest of the frame.
The road team’s dominance didn’t stop in the second period despite a costly turnover 14 minutes in that resulted in a second Matthies goal and a 2-0 Panthers lead. Capitals forward Sara Tokarz finally got her team on the scoreboard 2:21 into the third period firing a shot short side from the bottom of the faceoff circle that beat Panthers goaltender Morgan Fayle.
It was all Capitals after that with the road team continually driving the Estevan net hard and peppering Fayle with shots from outside and in close. A backhand from Capitals rookie Brynn Ferguson who found herself all alone at the top of the Panthers crease eventually tied the game 2-2 with nine minutes remaining.
“They got momentum there in the third and we just couldn’t get it back," said Morrison. "We were backpedaling the rest of the period and they ended up tying it and we’re fortunate to get away with a tie.”
The Panthers (13-4-8) sit second in the South Saskatchewan Female Hockey League standings with three games to play in the regular season, but the past two months haven’t been kind to the club. Since winning the Tier 1-A championship at the Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival in Calgary in mid-November, the team has gone 5-2-7 with only two of those wins coming in the month of January.
“After Calgary we thought we were way up there and we kind of slowed down a bit,” said Fayle. “So, we just need to get right back up to how we were before and I think the results will be a little bit better.”
