Bantam Mavericks Win In Double Overtime

Called “a game worth coming out to” by fans on both sides it took until double overtime for the Moose Jaw Bantam Mavericks to defeat the Balcarres Barracudas 3 -2 in Saskatchewan Female Hockey League playoff action.

Entering the game the Mavericks put their undefeated regular season and playoff season on the line and almost got knocked off by the Balcarres squad fresh off being giant killers in eliminating the Swift Current Colts.

The Barracudas took the lead on the power play with Sharlyze Cotton scoring assisted by Ashlyn Wilde 3:08 into the opening period.

Balcarres would continue to dominate and take a seemingly commanding 2 - 0 lead at the 7:33 mark when Sierra Ginnis passed out front from behind the Maverick net to Wilde who easily shot it into the open side past Maverick goaltender Brooke Archer.

With 1:44 left in the first period Mattea May would put it past Balcarres’ goaltender Phoenix Preston-Winder.

The second period opened with the Mavericks coming out quickly hoping to tie it but they failed to capitalize as Winder who had lost her stick laid sprawled flat on the ice.

Balcarres however fought back and Archer was forced to make a butterfly save at close quarters with the Mavericks’ net swarming with Barracuda players at the 17:28 mark.

The visiting Barracudas continued to press the Mavericks and just missed the opportunity to go once again take a two goal lead when Archer mishandled a high wrist shot and had to quickly recover to pull of a save on the short side of the left wing as the puck came close to crossing the goal line.

Moose Jaw however responded when Ember DuSomme stole the puck from the Barracudas and then stick handled her way around two Balcarres defenders only to have her great 15 foot wrist hand shot stopped by Preston-Winder.

The visiting Barracuda squad was presented with two glorious scoring opportunities while on the power play but each time Archer pulled off two blocker saves to deny restoring the two goal margin.

During the same power play Mattea May made one of the key plays of the game when she picked up the puck on the left side of the Mavericks net fought off the natural instinct to immediately ice the puck into what would be a crowd of four Barracuda players but instead dumped the puck safely into the corner. The play extinguished the pressure being applied by Balcarres during the power play.

Despite not scoring on the power play opportunity the Barracudas did not give up and once again they applied pressure and managed to get in a great long range wrist shot which was handled by Archer at the 9:20 mark.

Moose Jaw managed to tie the game up 8:24 mark after a shot went through the crease almost beating Preston-Winder only to be picked up by Sidney Ellingson who passed it right back through the crease to Nikita Halyk. An assist also goes to Taylor Luciak.

The third period saw both teams have some excellent scoring opportunities with Balcarres’ Jazmin Macknak having a clear shot of finding the twine of the Mavericks’ goal from 18 feet in front only to be beaten by Archer with 7 seconds left in regulation time.

The first overtime period saw Balcarres come out initially and apply pressure almost ending the game twice within the first four minutes.

Moose Jaw responded at the 5:10 mark when Preston-Winder initially seemed to have been beaten and bobbled a shot only to cover it up and prevent the game ending.

The Mavericks continued with a point blank shot at the 3:10 mark with Preston-Winder once again coming up with a key save.

At the 2:13 mark there was a brief moment when Mavericks hands were about to be raised in victory celebration only to have them come down when Preston-Winder pulled off another impossible massive save.

The game finally ended with a Mavericks victory when Keanna Maclachlan managed to keep the puck in and Paytin Copeland did some neat stickhandling and get the puck over to Eowyn Stokes who put it past Preston-Winder to end the game at the 18:36 mark of the second overtime period.

Speaking post game Mavericks’ head coach Stephane Gauvin praised Balcarres’ play.

“That is a very good team. Their goaltender is very good. We had our flat moments and it could have gone either way,” Gauvin said.

He said once overtime kicked in the Mavericks “played with desperation.”

With game two going this evening in Balcarres Gauvin admitted it was going to be a tough game.

“We have got our hands full,” he said, adding the team was going to be “just playing simple hockey as we are right in for it in their rink. We will be playing short shifts you cannot take chances against these guys they are a pretty solid team.”

The shots on goal were 56 to 28 in Moose Jaw’s favour.

If the Mavericks win tonight then they will capture the best of three second round playoff series. If they lose then game three will be this Sunday at 1:15 pm at the Bert Hunt Arena - 855 Lilloet Street West.