Despite The Loss Mavericks Final Game Was All About Effort And Fun
By Robert Thomas
Despite undisputably their strongest first period at home this season the Moose Jaw Midget A Mavericks fell 5 – 0 to the East Central Fillies in what is likely the championship game in Saskatchewan Female Hockey League action.
In what was suppose to be a best of three game series the Mavericks most likely played their final game of the season as Hockey Canada has suspended play in all leagues sanctioned by that body due to concerns surrounding the Novel Coronavirus.
Playing before what was likely the largest crowd of the season the Mavericks did what many believed to be the impossible and kept up to the highly favoured Fillies throughout the first period.
It was a heartbreaker for the Mavericks as within the first minute of play they literally stole the momentum from a giant due to a superb move from the bench to match lines.
Brooklyn Nimegeers in the second period - MJ Independent photo
The move momentarily dumbfounded the Fillies and almost gave the Moose Jaw squad the all important first goal.
It would set the tone for the first period which saw the Mavericks not only out shoot the visitors, but carry the play into the Fillies end and almost break the armour which has surrounded the Leroy squad who have as a team played together over the past six years.
With two and a half minutes gone in the period Mavericks starting goaltender Sydnee Christmann would make a great save on the Fillies top sniper Kiana Leicht.
The play would move to the Fillies end of the ice where the 14 year old rookie Brooklyn Nimegeers would beat Fillies netminder Jensen Kelly only to have the shot ring off of the post.
With 12:52 left in the period Christmann would make a save on Emma Abrey only to have a trailing Leicht put in the rebound to give the Fillies the first goal.
Despite being down by a single goal the Mavericks continued the pressure with some of their best scoring chances of the game. The pressure on the Fillies forced the regular season champions to make errors and take their only two penalties of the game.
Despite being injure in the first period Ashley Breitkreuz came back in the second to chip in - MJ Independent photo
While skating in on the left wing and potentially breaking free along the left wing boards the Mavericks Ashley Breitkreuz would be bodychecked by the Fillies captain Bridgette Vedress with just under three minutes left in the period. The check would see Breitkreuz on the ice injured and helped to the bench by two teammates.
Despite trailing by a single goal the game came down to who would win the battle of the second period and unfortunately for the Mavericks they would come out on the losing end as the Fillies used their size and strength to win the battle in the corners.
With 13:37 the Fillies Haley Lins would score assisted by Jace Kelly and Nicole Girolami.
Despite being down by two goals the Mavericks came back to life to dominate play for a brief three minutes right after Nimegeers was set up and her ensuing shot made the familiar ting of hitting the crossbar.
See an example of the pressure after the crossbar ringing in the video below.
The Fillies would recover and once again use their larger size and strength to score when Cassadi Klapak won the battle in the corner and passed the puck over to Kaylee Hofman who scored with 7:19 left in the period.
The battle of the corner continued when Laureen Hinz would skate out from the right wing corner and score unassisted less than a minute later with 6:28 left in the period.
At this point the Mavericks bench, who had heard the league final would likely be a one game affair during the first intermission, decided to make a goaltender change so Schay Camphaug had the opportunity to play in the league final.
Campaugh would be challenged by the Fillies but made some saves in the remainder of the period which shut down the Fillies scoring machine.
In the third period the Mavericks would see themselves pressured by the Fillies but managed to prevent the fifth goal.
With the opportunity to break the shutout the Mavericks found themselves penalized for being overly aggressive while pressuring behind the Fillies net. While on the powerplay Leicht would score assisted by Hinz and Girolami with 8:58 left in the game.
Despite the heartbreaking loss Mavericks head coach Mike Botterill was happy with the team’s performance who overcame two key injuries late in the season and managed to adapt and advance as a team.
Despite the loss the Mavericks still could smile at the end of the season - MJ Independent photo
In the scrum with MJ Independent and the Moose Jaw Express Botterill said he was disappointed with the outcome of the game but not the Mavericks efforts.
“I think we played two and a half periods of really good hockey and like you say this is such a good hockey club we played against and you cannot let off for five seconds and what happens they put a puck in the back of the net our girls battled hard we had some sickness on the team, not the corona virus, just battling with some injuries and stuff like that,” he said. “The girls stepped it up and I am really, really proud about the season they had.”
Regarding the Mavericks coming out in the first period on fire he said.
“(It was comparable to) when we played down in Montana in a tournament we played a fantastic first period against a Notre Dame AA team and beat them four to nothing it was comparable to that. I think it was a heck of a first period they came out flying. They certainly broke the mold when we normally come out flat n the first so they showed they really wanted it and came out and worked hard.”
About the key first minute of play in the game Botterill said once the Mavericks bench saw what Fillies were doing they immediately compensated by making the best use of their three lines.
“There is a strategy sometimes who you out your players out with based upon how their players are like and I looked at their stats and I thought there are certain players I want to out out in matchups.”
Following Hockey Canada’s guidelines the season ended with fist bumps in lieu of the traditonal handshakes - MJ Indpendent photo
Asked about the development of Nimegeers Botterill said the entire team developed throughout the season.
“She (Nimegeers) is not the only one. She is an unbelievable hockey player for sure but I have to say from the start of the season to the end of the season I have seen everyone of those girls have improved and it is just a fantastic thing to see such a development.”
Despite having a team with a large number of bantam aged players as its core the graduating midget players served to inspire the younger players to play in a higher division.
“We only had two girls who were third year midgets this year, our leaders Kaelyn (Logan) and Lindsay (Daniel) and every time they put on their skates they would step it up and show their leadership just like they did tonight. They have been a great inspiration to those young girls and I think they have brought them along and helped them to develop,” Botterill said. “A young team but they did a fantastic job.”
About the cancellation of the remainder of the season because concerns surrounding the Novel Coronavirus he said it was a tough way to end the season.
“It is tough. It is tough for these girls I know they were looking forward to going back to Leroy and maybe evening up the series. They gave it all they had tonight. We told them before the game this might be it. We heard a rumour Hockey Canada is putting an end to all of their events ad of Friday so we went out and did he best we could and hats off to Leroy they have a great team over there to.”
Botterill said it was difficult to pinpoint the biggest highlight of the season but the under 18 tournament in Montana is right up there when they defeated the Notre Dame AA team.
“That was huge that gave the girls a lot of confidence at Christmas time and they just carried it forward throughout the season.”
About the goaltender change it was not because of any lack of confidence but an opportunity to give both the opportunity to play in the final game.
“Looking at the score, it was four to nothing and having a feeling we would not be able to crawl back into the game I wanted to give Schay some ice time as well. She has performed extremely well for ths as well.”
Fillies head coach Kurt Leicht said he was happy with his team’s play.
“It’s good. It’s sad that it that it is over (because of the cancellation of the rest ot the season). It is a disappointment,” Leicht said.
Asked about if there was any concern about the Mavericks play he said “oh yeah we did. We knew we had to come out strong and play hard.”