First period surge powers Northern Bears to Sunday win

Photo by Nathan Reiter. The Prince Albert Northern Bears bench during SFU18AAAHL action at the Art Hauser Centre

A three goal first period surge helped power the Prince Albert Northern Bears to a 5-1 victory over the Weyburn Gold Wings Sunday afternoon at the Art Hauser Centre.

Northern Bears head coach Steve Young says that Prince Albert bounced back in a positive way in Sunday’s contest.

“They played more like what we wanted to. I think it’s important that when we drop a game like we did that we come back right away. I thought our start was very good.”

The Northern Bears would strike early and often in the first period, Prince Albert would open the scoring with 17:43 remaining in the first period as Tristyn Endicott would strike for her 2nd goal of the season to give the Bears an early 1-0 lead.

Prince Albert would keep the pressure on as an unassisted goal from Julia Cey would double the Northern Bears lead with 14:33 remaining in the third period.

Weyburn would run into some penalty trouble later in the period and the Northern Bears power play unit would go to work with a 5-on-3 advantage. Jacquelyne Chief’s fourth goal of the season was assisted by Sasha Malenfant and Tristyn Endicott to give Prince Albert a 3-0 lead.

Prince Albert outshot Weyburn 11-8 in the first period.

Weyburn would respond in the second period with a power play goal from Abigail Manz with 16:20 remaining in the second period.

The Bears would respond at the beginning of the third period with Beau Chisholm’s first goal as a Northern Bear to restore the three goal Prince Albert lead at 4-1.

Chisholm, a product of Weyburn, says it was extra special coming against her hometown team.

“It means a lot, especially playing [against] your hometown. It’s a good feeling.”

The Bears made a key lineup change as Chisholm was moved to the centre position, swapping with winger Bree Purcell.

Young says Chisholm responded well to the change.

“She’s come along. We made a decision to move her to centre and switch her and [Bree] Purcell on wings. I thought she responded well today. The big thing with Beau is she has to take it hand in hand and day by day and make sure she is understanding to stay at the pace of this level. We’re very happy for her to get her first goal.”

The Bears would add another insurance marker with just 0:56 remaining as Julia Cey would strike for her 10th of the season to ice it for Prince Albert.

NEW CAPTAIN

The weekend also marked the first games wearing the ‘C’ for Northern Bears defenceman Jacquelyne Chief as she was recently awarded the captaincy for the remainder of the campaign.

Young says Chief has demonstrated great leadership qualities within the Bears locker room season.

“We knew coming into the season that Jac had a lot of good leadership qualities. As the year has gone on, she’s been the one to warrant wearing the C. With not wearing it, she’s kind of been our captain but now everything’s official that way and she’ll be our official captain wearing the C”

Chief says she is excited to wear the ‘C’ and is anticipating the opportunity to wear it at the Esso Cup later this season.

“I’m really honoured to be able to wear the C and to lead my team. Hopefully we only go up from here. It’s an honour especially playing for the Bears and to able to wear the C at Esso is a big deal. So I’m super pumped about that.”

The Northern Bears return to action on Jan. 14 when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Wildcats

sports@paherald.sk.ca

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