Wildcats resume playoff hunt against Sharks
The Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats didn’t get the sweep they were after but they came home with four of a possible six points against the lastplace Battlefords Sharks in their first Saskatchewan Female Midget Hockey League action in almost a month.
Their return to league action didn’t go as planned Saturday in St. Walburg as a part of the SaskEnergy Hockey Weekend in Saskatchewan festivities. The Wildcats suffered their first shootout loss in a 4-3 setback after leading 3-1.
The Wildcats got goals from Merissa Zerr, Danya Winzer, and Jessica Pele to lead 3-1. Battlefords forced overtime with a shorthanded goal in the second period and tied it with 26 seconds left in regulation.
The Wildcats were stopped on all six of their shootout attempts before Brooke Lonoway scored the only goal for the Sharks.
Jasey Book was tagged with the loss after allowing three goals on 20 shots. Jaeda Hoppe, Kate Scidmore, and Keely Chalk all picked up assists in the loss.
The Wildcats turned things around Sunday with a 4-1 win. They fell behind after allowing a Jetta Derenoski shorthanded goal to trail after one period before scoring four unanswered goals.
Scidmore, Chalk, Kayla Kirwan, and Brooklyn Haubrich all scored.
Zerr and Winzer both had two assists, and Kirwan added an assist for a twopoint outing.
Kirwan scored on the power play and Haubrich scored while shorthanded to cap the victory.
Brooklyn Weisgerber made 28 saves in the victory to improve to 5-6-0 with a 2.24 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.
The four-point weekend moved the Wildcats into fifth spot in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League standings with an 8-9-4-1 record, one point behind Saskatoon and one point ahead of Notre Dame.
The Wildcats will play three league games this weekend beginning Friday when they visit the Notre Dame Hounds (9-10-2-1) in Wilcox.
The Wildcats will host the Melville Prairie Fire (412-1-2) on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. in a pivotal series in the playoff race.
The Wildcats lost 4-1 and won 2-1 in a shootout in Melville back in November.