The Prince Albert Northern Bears are still seeking their first win of the season as they dropped a pair of games in Regina over the weekend.
Northern Bears head coach Steve Young says Prince Albert started the weekend strong, but couldn’t keep the momentum going into Sunday.
“I thought for our layoff, our first game was good. I felt we had an opportunity to get some points out of it, but we came up short. Sunday, we spent way too much time in our zone, Regina took it to us and we couldn’t recover to get into their zone and create anything.”
In the Saturday game, the Bears gave up the opening goal at the 6:05 mark when Stryker Zablocki gave Regina a 1-0 lead.
Kinley Brassard evened the score for the Bears with less then a minute to go in the first period with her first goal of the campaign. Emery Rogers and Marly Dumanski assisted on the play.
Prince Albert would come out strong in the second period and Ella Clarke gave the Bears the lead on the power play just 2:14 into the frame. Bree Purcell and Brassard assisted on the play.
Just over five minutes later, Addison Davidge doubled the lead for Prince Albert with her second goal of the season. Assists were credited to Mikiya Anderson and Tristyn Endicott.
Regina strucke less than a minute later when an unassisted goal from Avery Gottselig cut the Bears lead to 3-2.
A power play goal from Addison Greve evend the score at 3-3 after forty minutes. Zablocki and Emily Karpan assisted on the play.
Regina secured the win with a pair of goals in the third period from Berlin Lolacher and Kadence Dansereau.
Annika Neufeldt made 38 saves in her season debut, after missing time with injury to start the season. Young says it was a positive sign to see her back in game action.
“It was a tough situation early when she got hurt there for a bit, so it was nice to see her back in game action and hopefully jumping into game action that weekend, it can make her ready for this week for sure.”
In the Sunday game, the Bears and Rebels were tied after twenty minutes, but Regina’s offence surged in the second and third periods on route to a 7-1 victory over the Bears.
The Bears will return to action on Wednesday night, when they welcome the league leading Battlefords Sharks to the Art Hauser Centre.
Young says the Bears will have to come out strong against a strong opponent
“They’re off to a very good start. When you’re winning, you have confidence. They will be a confident hockey club coming into our building. We have to make sure that we take that away from them early.”
Puck drops at 7 p.m.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
