Flyers Manage Tie In Tight Checking Home Opener
Story and Photos By Robert Thomas
To the sounds of some funky 80’s disco tunes the Milestone U18A Female Flyers held their home opener on Friday evening.
Playing in front of a crowd of over 150 the reigning South Champion in the Saskatchewan Female Hockey League managed a tie in a tight checking game that saw the momentum flow back and forth in a nail bite that in the end ended as a 1 - 1 tie against the visiting Balcarres Barracudas.
This is the second meeting of the season between the teams with the Barracudas shutting out the Flyers 2 - 0 in their first meeting.
Kamrie Kaufmann makes a butterfly save through traffic - MJ Independent photo
Mckenna Perras (left) and Callie Calaghan defend in front of the Milestone net - MJ Independent photo
The First Period saw no scoring as the Balcarres Barracudas seemed to take the early initiative from the Milestone Flyers.
The Barracudas Sarah Mann found herself penalized in the early going as she was assessed a with a two minute minor penalty for tripping.
Unfortunately for the Flyers the Barracudas managed an effective penalty kill resulting in the game remaining scoreless.
At the 8:07 mark the Flyers Jordyn Vermeulen took a two minute minor for tripping at the 8:07 mark.
The Barracudas were able to put pressure on the Flyers but the team managed, after effort, to clear the zone and send the puck down the ice on more than a few occasions. Icing the puck led to a contingent of cow bells ringing fans had brought to the game.
The Flyers Kiana Hrechka (left) jostles with the Barracudas Julie Petrichuk - MJ Independent photo
Brooklyn Hrynkiw watches the play developing behind netminder Kamrie Kaufmann - MJ Independent photo
The Second Period saw the Balcarres Barracudas come out checking aggressively and for the first six to seven minutes of the period able to dominate the hometown squad.
The aggressive play once again saw Mann take a two minute minor penalty this time for body checking at the 18:07 mark.
Despite having the one player advantage the Flyers found themselves victimized by an aggressively checking Barracudas team who managed to break up and keep the Flyers often in their own end of the ice.
The momentum would continue to favour the Barracudas until close to the 13:00 mark when more aggressive checking by the Flyers saw it suddenly shift from the visiting team to the home team.
Time and again Milestone would get shots through on Osbourne from the front of the net. She would make two key stellar saves on Flyers forwards that somehow kept the game scoreless.
However it was the Barracudas who would strike first with a goal at the 4:30 mark when the puck was in front of Kaufmann and Regan Keisig was able to put it into Milestone’s net. Assists went to Kaell Klisowsky and Jayden Hyndman.
The puck goes along the ice and past Barracudas netminder Danika Osbourne as Milestone ties the game - MJ Independent photo
Milestone though would respond on what was a weak along the ice long distance shot by Cara Faris from the left wing that beat the out of position Osbourne as the puck trickled between her pads and into the Balcarres net.
Assists went to Kiana Hrechka and Mckenna Perras.
Emily Quigley attempts to elude a trailing Barracuda player - MJ Independent photo
The Third Period saw the checking tighten but there were still stellar scoring opportunities as the momentum swung like a fast moving pendulum.
Balcarres put pressure on the Milestone team but despite that the squad never buckled.
Tbe Barracudas in the second half put relentless pressure on the Flyers. Pressure which they hoped would see the Flyers buckling and the Barracudas capturing both games of the home and home.
The Flyers managed to penetrate deep into the Barracudas defensive area but it was not to be.
The Flyers would have stellar opportunities as they would skate deep into Barracuda’s defensive zone and in swings right in front only to miss the scoring opportunities given to them.
Barracudas netminder Danika Osbourne moves the puck. Both team’s netminders were called on to make some stellar saves - MJ Independent photo
The Flyers Kaleigh McCann figths for position with the Barracudas Madison Fuchs - MJ Independent photo
Coaches’ Reactions
“They are a hard working team,” Flyers head coach Shane Kaufmann said about the Barracudas.
This is the second meeting between the teams and the Flyers were shutout 2 - 0 in their first meeting.
Kaufmann said he was happy with how the Flyers played against the Barracudas.
“We just need to bring a little bit more effort and we can win on any given night,” he said.
Both Kaufmann and co-coach Darrel Perras said the hard checking and contested game could have went either way. A chance bounce and extra burst of effort at the right time could have easily lead to a Flyers, or a Barracuda, win.
Although it has been a couple of years the Berracudas have a formidable backbone squad of players.
The Barracudas program in 2019 turned out to be giant killers in the U15 league first winning a hard fought three game series against Swift Current and then coming just short in a deciding game against the Moose Jaw Mavericks in a triple overtime hard fought thriller.
Some of the girls in that surprising 2019 team still play for Balcarres head coach of the Balcarres Baracudas Mark Hartman said.
“There is a few that are still on that team yeah…that was an exciting one it (playing the Mavericks in the 2019 series) was a low scoring game and there were chances both ways.”
“This one (Friday night’s game) sort of reminded me of that one. You know it is two tough teams going back and forth and tight checking and low scoring game but still lots of opportunities,” Hartman said.
“This one came down to one good bounce or one bad bounce in your favour it could have been the difference in this one. Yeah it was exciting hockey. It was tight checking hockey and entertaining for the fans.”
“One break one way or the other way it could have been the difference,. In the end it was a tie game. I kind of expected it to be a low scoring and tight checking game and that was what it was,” he said.
Flyer's forward Kiana Hrechka goes after a loose puck - MJ Independent photo
For Kaufmann one of the key factors in Friday night’s game was the quality of goaltending both teams had.
With a tight checking affair when the opportunities arose for either team to score both Kamrie Kaufmann for Milestone and Danika Osbourne shut down the opportunities.
Osbourne - despite giving up what could be described as an easier goal - stymied the Flyers on breakaways which could have easily been two goals for Milestone during the final ten minutes of the second period.
“We just need to capitalize on a few of our opportunities and it would have been a different story,” he said.
“Both goalies played really well.”
Asked about the differences in play from last year where the Flyers took advantage of the deep corners behind the net to score numerous wraparound goals both coaches said “we don’t care how they go in. Just as long as they go in.”
A key feature of the Flyers on Friday night was the move to numerous shots through traffic that got through on net - something that was a problem at times last season.
During the times when the momentum was behind the Barracudas Perras said “you just try to hang on.”
“They (Barracudas) were the same when we played them up there. They are tight checking. They are quick to,” Kaufmann said, adding “they don’t give you much time in any zone really.”
“You have got to move the puck quicker (playing them).”
Kaleigh McCann made herself a fixture in the Balcarres Barracudas' crease on Friday evening - MJ Independent photo
This Year’s Team
Asked about this year’s edition of the Milestone Flyers Kaufmann said this year’s team is on par with last season’s team.
“I would say we are right on par with what we had last year. Some off the younger kids it is just first year U18 so they just need to step up a little bit more and we will be fine.”
The Milestone Flyers is a regionally based team drawing largely from not just Milestone but surrounding communities.
“I would say we have got similar talent to what we had last year,” Kaufmann said.
With no U18 team in the Moose Jaw Mavericks program the Flyers have also picked up three Moose Jaw players. Last season the Flyers had four players who came from the Mavericks’ program as there was no U18 team to play on.
Three new additions to the Milestone Flyers this year are Brooklyn Hrynkiw, Kiana Hrechka and Jessie Mielke.
A team that won a hard fought southern division championship in the Saskatchewan Female Hockey League and came just short of claiming the provincial crown.
“We are doing good. Once we het our things together we’ll do really good,” Kaufmann said.
The Flyers have the majority of their games to start the season on the road but that is by design,
“We like to get on the road done before the roads are bad. We try to get the far ones done before Christmas.”
The team has to work hard over the next little while so they gel better. Being a regional team it can take longer for the different styles of play to mesh together.
“We are going to work on spreading out more and passing the puck more. We need to go to the net and I think we will be fine,” Kaufmann said.
With many of the girls playing volleyball at high school the Flyers had to reschedule games to fit around the strict Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association’s calendar.
“December (when games have been rescheduled to) is a big month,” Perras said, adding “one game at a time.”
A referee discusses the play with Milestone Flyers coach Darrell Perras - MJ Independent photo
Flyers head coach Shane Kaufmann with his ever present trademark disposable coffee cup in his left hand is sporting a stetson this season - MJ Independent photo
Other Female Hockey Developments
One welcomed addition to female hockey in Milestone this season is that the U18A Female Flyers are not the only female team to call the Milestone Arena as their home rink.
There is an U11A female team this season.
“Yeah that is awesome,” Perras said.
“They (the U15A team) are similar to our team. A lot of them are from around (Milestone). A lot of them are from Roleau I think,” Kaufmann said.
Asked if the team’s formation could be attributed to the U18 version’s success the past couple of seaspns neither coach could say that but having more female hockey players locally was a good thing.