But in the end, it wasn’t enough to win the opening game of their Saskatchewan Female Hockey League Midget A provincial championship final against the East Central Fillies – and with Hockey Canada’s decision to cancel the season due to COVID-19 concerns, the 5-0 loss at Bert Hunt Arena on Thursday night was officially their final game of the 2019-20 campaign.
There were no trophy or medal presentations after the final whistle, but there was a sense it was a one-game, winner-take-all event. And that drove the Mavericks to a driving start right out of the gate, leading head coach Mike Botterill to consider the first period one of their top showings all year.
“That, and the first period he had down in Montana when we beat the Notre Dame AA team 4-0,” Botterill said. “This was comparable to that. I was really happy with the first period, we kind of broke the mold since we usually come out flat in the first, but they came out and worked hard.”
East Central would escape with a 1-0 lead, though, and the unbeaten regular season champions would redouble their efforts in the second, scoring three times in a seven-minute span to build a 4-0 edge. They’d tack on another in the third while playing clamp-down defence, giving the Fillies their 5-0 victory.
“I think we played two and a half periods of really good hockey, and this is such a good hockey club that you can’t even let down for a couple of seconds or they’ll put the puck in the back of the net,” Botterill said. “But our girls battled hard, we had some sickness on the team – not the coronavirus, mind you – but some injuries and stuff like that. They stepped up and I’m really proud of the season the girls had.”
Sydnee Christmann and Schay Camphaug split time in goal, with Camphaug stopping 15 shots and Christmann making 19 saves. The Mavericks had 24 shots on the Fillies’ Jensen Kelly.
Kiana Leicht scored twice for East Central, Haley Lins, Kaylee Hoffmann and Lauren Hinz had single markers.
Seeing things come to an abbreviated end was disappointing for the local crew, especially after the season they had put together – 14-2-0, followed by two-game sweeps in each of their earlier playoff series.
“It is tough, it’s tough for these girls because I know they were looking forward to going back to Leroy and maybe evening up the series,” Botterill said. “They gave it all they had, we told them before the game that Hockey Canada has put an end to all of their events as of Friday, so we went out and did the best we could.”
