CANORA – With a total of four players on their roster from Canora and Sturgis, it made sense that the U18AA Grain Millers Parkland Phoenix girls team played one of its home games in Canora as part of Girls Hockey Day, the second game of the day.
“I think it was great idea to have the two games back to back,” said Paige Henderson, Parkland head coach. "It’s always nice to see the growth of female hockey. Each year it seems there is a new team or more girls playing hockey, which is what you want to see.”
The Dec. 13 contest had Parkland taking on the Prince Albert Foxes, and this back-and-forth affair was so close, it could not be decided in 60 minutes.
Henderson said her team played well against P.A. but “we have more to show. We came out slow in the first period, but then picked it up the rest of the game.”
Even though there was plenty of skating and offensive zone pressure by both teams, the Foxes had the only goal of the game through two periods
“Both goalies had a great game,” said Henderson. “I find typically when both teams are playing hard you see a smaller number of goals to be scored.”
The third period opened up somewhat, with a total of three shooters finding the back of the net.
Rowyn Johnson of Canora tied the score early in the third period, on assists from Kaley Starr of Whitewood and Madelyn Holman of Moosomin. But P.A. regained the lead by scoring with under five minutes left.
Shortly thereafter, Parkland went on the power play. With under a minute on the clock and their goalie on the bench in favour of an extra attacker, a point shot by Payton Lamb of Esterhazy beat the Foxes goalie to force overtime. The assist went to Madeleine Reavie of Rocanville.
“Pulling the goalie can always be a risky move but I felt confident in my girls that if I got them one more player on the ice to create a six-on-four skater situation they would have a really good opportunity to tie up the game, which they did!” said Henderson.
Unfortunately for Parkland, the Foxes capitalized on an opportunity in overtime and scored the game winner, for a 3-2 final score.
“I always tell my girls that the game of hockey is about which team makes the least amount of mistakes and who can capitalize on said mistakes,” said Henderson. “Unfortunately P.A. capitalized on ours, but we will use that as a learning opportunity.”
Henderson said the four Canora and Sturgis players have made a significant contribution to the team already this season.
Emma Olson (Sturgis) – “I have had the privilege of coaching Emma for two years now. This is her fifth year of hockey and her growth as a player has been incredible. She brings a lot of speed to our first line.”
Rowyn Johnson (Canora) – “This is Rowyn’s first year with our team; I got to see her play a bit last year as she AP’ed for my team. Rowyn also brings a lot of speed to our forward roster. I am excited to see her game grow as she develops as a player.”
Cassidy Wolkowski (Canora)- “This is also Cassidy’s first year with the team. She has an incredible work ethic. I am able to put her on forward or defence depending on the team/game situation.”
Katie Hauber (Canora) – “I am super excited to get to coach Katie in her last year of high school hockey. Katie has a great head for the game; that is a hard thing to coach. She always is up for asking questions when she is unsure of a situation, which I really appreciate.”
Henderson said she is excited for the future of the Parkland team.
“We have a lot of rookies on the team so it’s a building year or learning year you could say. I think we are finally finding our groove. I think this second half of the season you will be able to really see these girls shine.”
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