The Prince Albert Northern Bears couldn’t quite pull off the weekend sweep, falling 3-2 to the Swift Current Wildcats in SFU18AAAHL action on Sunday afternoon.
Northern Bears head coach Steve Young says there were some promising signs during the game and it provided some lessons for the team.
“ I thought after the first period we rebounded, which was important. We didn’t follow through in the third, but it’s important for the new players and the returning players to understand this league. It’s not easy any shift, any period and that’s what we have to take out of today’s game.”
Swift Current would take a 1-0 lead after twenty minutes as Reece Hawkins would score with 1:46 left in the opening frame. Dior Stringer had the helper.
The Bears would score twice in the middle frame as captain Liz Udell and Mikiya Anderson each had even strength tallies.
Prince Albert couldn’t hold onto the lead in the third period as the Wildcats would tie the game with a power play marker from Jade Thompson with 11:13 to go in the middle frame.
Swift Current would take the lead with 6:54 to go as Charlize Hillmer would strike with a shot from below the left circle that beat Nikita Krayetski. Kaylee Williams had the lone helper.
Young says the Bears will need to play more disciplined moving forward.
“I haven’t looked at the penalties, but you can’t take penalties like that. They had some pressure on the power play, so it was a matter of time before they scored. Just the little things. You’ve got to get pucks out, you’ve got to do the right things. It’s continuous teaching. We’re two games in and hopefully we’ve learned some stuff this weekend.”
The Bears will return to action next Saturday in Weyburn, but don’t play another game on home ice until November.
Young says the early road games will allow Prince Albert to gel as a team.
“It’s a good test. I think it’s unfortunate that there’s so much going on at the building so everybody has to be out of town. It allows us to be together as a group and do some team building and it is a good group here. It is a group here that’s very capable of doing a lot of things this year and hopefully that helps us on the road.”
