Northern Bears off to strong start at Calgary Firestarter Tournament

The season is underway for the Prince Albert Northern Bears as the team is off at the Calgary Firestarter Tournament.

Prince Albert earned a 3-3 tie in their first game against the Thompson-Okanagan Lakers on Thursday, before downing the St. Albert Slash 3-2 on Friday morning.

Northern Bears head coach Steve Young says the team is showing promising signs early in the season.

“We didn’t really know what to expect coming into the Firestarter. We know it’s a quality tournament and every team starts differently in the season and has played some games. We’ve had a few practices. We’ve come up to the tournament and so far, it’s been pretty good. The girls have worked hard and we’ve seen some positives from our hockey club.”

In their first game, the Bears tied the Thompson-Okanagan Lakers 3-3 in a battle of the last two Esso Cup hosts.

Prince Albert would strike first as Liz Udell would pot her first goal of the tournament at the 4:32 mark of the opening frame. Ella Clarke picked up the lone helper.

Kiran Keller would respond with a power play tally at the 16:10 mark to pull the Lakers even. Emmerson Brown and Mignon Helberg received the assists on the play.

In the second, Ana Lovelace would put the Lakes ahead at the 9:59 mark. Kaia Fletcher and Kallico Mollin assisted on the play.

Just 0:36 into the third period, Keller would record her second goal of the game to double the Laker lead. Fletcher received her second assist of the game on the play.

Prince Albert would cut the deficit to one at the 6:29 mark as Marly Dumanski would strike with an even strength goal. Arlise Schmalz had the lone assist.

The Prince Albert power play would get to work later in the frame as Ella Clarke would strike at the 12:07 mark to tie the game. Mikiya Anderson and Udell assisted on the play.

Nikita Krayetski made 24 saves for Prince Albert in goal. Denali Forsyth made 24 stops for Thompson-Okanagan.

In their Friday morning contest against St. Albert, the Slash would open the scoring at the 4:28 mark on the power play. Tayla Lamabe would record her second goal of the tournament. Aubrey Sanderson and Mikayla Gibson assisted on the play.

Prince Albert would strike back at the 17:23 mark of the opening frame as a pair of rookies would contribute to the Northern Bears goal. Olivia Trann would strike for the goal with Rowan Clement assisting on the play.

Trann and Clement are two of nine rookies on the Prince Albert roster this season. Young says the rookie class has done well in their first taste of U18 AAA action.

“I think they’ve been really good coming into this tournament, we just said we’re just going to roll lines and play everyone, I think they’ve stepped up to the plate, they’ve competed, they’ve worked hard, they’ve listened to what we want to do as far as structure. We’re excited about our whole hockey club. We did make a lot of adds this year and it is a lot of 2009s.”

The Bears would take their first lead of the game at the 6:56 mark of the second period as Ella Clarke would strike on the power play. Mikiya Anderson assisted on the play.

Marly Dumanski would double the lead for Prince Albert at the 6:47 mark. Zoey Krienke picked up the lone helper.

Keelyn Pisani would get St. Albert within one, but that’s as close as they would get.

Annika Neufeldt made 29 saves to earn the victory in goal for the Bears. Addison MacDonald made 16 stops for St. Albert.

Prince Albert was in action later on Friday night against St. Mary’s High School, but results were not available as of press time.

Two games into the season, Young says he has seen some promising things from the Northern Bears.

“I think as a whole, they’ve worked hard. We’ve been able to use our team speed at times, which we think is going to be important this year. We continue to work on our play without the puck. As a group, I think the biggest thing that I’ve been happy with, that they’re all willing to learn and they all want more as a group of players to be the best they can be.”

Written By Nathan Reiter- Check out the Daily Herald for more up to date articles