Bears kick off playoffs Saturday night in Swift Current

The regular season has come and gone and the Prince Albert Northern Bears are gearing up for the playoffs. 

Prince Albert finished the regular season with a 10-15-2-3 record, good enough for fifth place in the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League (SFU18AAAHL) standings. 

Northern Bears head coach Steve Young says Prince Albert improved as the season progressed. 

“It went fast. I thought as a group, we may have started slow. I thought after Christmas, we were a stronger team. We’re not saying we were as consistent as we wanted to be, but I thought our second half was stronger and we got to carry that into the playoffs.” 

The Bears will face the fourth ranked Swift Current Wildcats (12-13-1-4) in the first round of the playoffs beginning Saturday night in Swift Current.  

In the five game season series between the two clubs, Prince Albert took three of the five games with the most recent being a 4-2 win at the Art Hauser Centre back on Dec. 22 

Young says Prince Albert has their work cut out for them against Swift Current 

“We’ve been evenly matched every time we’ve played them. It’s been one or two goals and close games . We’re looking forward to it. We know we have to start on the road, so we have to win in their building at some point. It’s going to be interesting. I think like any playoff, it’s a higher level, it’s a higher pace. The girls have to get used to that early in the game for us to have success early.” 

The SFU18AAAHL operates in a best-of-three format in the playoffs to closely emulate USPORTS because a lot of league alumni move on to play at the university level. Game 1 is scheduled for Saturday night from S3 Arenas in Swift Current. 

Young says the message to the players has been to be ready to go from puck drop in Swift Current. 

“We’ve told them that there’s going to be a good atmosphere there. There’s going to be a lot of people there and not necessarily cheering for them. We just got to make sure we stay focused. We can’t just go in there and hope for things to happen. We got to make things happen one step at a time.” 

With nine rookies on the roster this season, the Bears will look to rely on their veteran players throughout the playoff run. 

Marly Dumanski is one of the Bears graduating forwards and is coming off a weekend where she scored five goals in the final two games of the season against Notre Dame and Weyburn. 

“I’m super excited.” Dumanski explained in an interview with the Daily Herald. “There’s only a few games left, and we have to make the most of what we have, and it’s my last year, so ending on a win would be good. I’m a super outgoing and loud person, so I kind of want to leave the team with a positive note.” 

Swift Current enters the playoffs after losing their final two games of the regular season on the road in the Battlefords against the league leading Sharks. Dumanski says Prince Albert will look to control the pace throughout the series. 

“I think we need to just keep the energy up and move pucks fast. They’re a hard team to play against. I think ending the year on a good note has really made it better going into playoffs.” 

Game 1 is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. on Saturday night in Swift Current. The series shifts back to Prince Albert on Sunday night with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre. 

Article from Daily Herald on March 8th , 2025 by Nate Reiter