The Estevan Power Tech midget AA Panthers 2016-17 season started with the team seemingly unawares.
The Parkland Lions (2-2) controlled the play during the first 10 minutes of the Panthers season opening 2-0 win at Affinity Place on Sunday with only Estevan goaltender Morgan Fayle appearing ready for the opposition. With the Lions applying pressure in the Panthers zone, Fayle came up big for her team first stoning Jordyn Bear in close before shooting out the glove for a save on Samantha Mayer.
Panthers rookie forward Marci Leblanc seemed to wake up the Estevan skaters with a rush from her blue line into the Lions zone where she used her speed to get behind the Parkland defence for a chance in close. Estevan got their game going from then on with the biggest example coming on a Lions power play late in the first period where the Panthers penalty kill unit completely shut them down hemming the opposition in their own zone for the majority of the two minutes.
“We backed off a little bit so they wouldn’t chip it by us,” explained Panthers defenceman Kamryn Friars about how they were able to control the Lions power play. “We kind of let them come to us.”
The second period was all special teams with the Panthers and Lions each taking four minor penalties. Again the Panthers penalty killers dominated with Lions goalie Cheyenne Jamieson now keeping her team in the game with a number of outstanding stops including smothering a shot by Estevan rookie Kenzie Balon that was headed into an open far side.
After the Panthers killed off a few more penalties to start the third period, veteran forward Michaella Matthies notched Estevan’s first goal of the season with 6:53 remaining by picking up a loose puck in the slot on a drive through traffic and sliding it in low glove side. Makenna Morrison got the insurance marker with 55 seconds left in the game on an empty netter.
“We gave up some opportunities today, but I thought our defensive game wasn’t too bad,” said Panthers coach Trevor Morrison. “As every team does, we have a lot of things to work on, but I’m very excited with this team. We got roughly half and half of veteran girls and new girls. The new girls bring a lot to our team and with the veteran girls I believe we’re going to have an exciting year.”
The Panthers begin the 28-game South Saskatchewan Female Hockey League season with six of their first seven contests at Affinity Place before hitting the road for a lengthy stretch of time in November. Morrison said they want to get off to a quick start this year with the home-ice advantage and they’ll be working towards that in practice this week before welcoming the Moose Jaw Mavericks to Affinity Place this Saturday and Sunday.
“We’re probably going to work on getting it out of our own end and probably our power play and penalty kill a little bit more,” added Friars. “There is always room for improvement.”
