The Moose Jaw Carpet One Mavericks 2 are off to the Saskatchewan Female Hockey League U13 A championship final series.
And the most thrilling of fashions, at that.
Madeline Hopkinson scored the game-winning goal at the 8:59 mark of the second overtime period to give the Mavericks a 4-3 victory over the Western Prairie Unity in the third and deciding game of their semifinal series on Friday morning at the Red Knight Arena.
The win gave the Mavericks the SFHL West Division Championship and came on the heels of a 4-3 overtime loss in the series opener in Unity on Wednesday, Mar. 15 and a 5-2 victory in Game 2 at the Bert Hunt on Thursday, Mar. 16.
As the score would indicate, things were plenty interesting in Game 3.
Western Prairie scored the lone goal of the first period to take a 1-0 lead, but Allora Smith and Brooklyn Loney scored for Moose Jaw in the second as the two teams went into the final period tied at a pair each.
Taya Babich gave the Mavericks their first lead early in the period, but Western Prairie would tie things up to send the proceedings to overtime and set up Hopkinson’s heroics.
Blair Bennett was in goal for the win, Ashlyn Brown took the loss.
Taryn Pernitsky scored twice for Unity, Ayla Sperle had their other goal.
With their league championship hopes on the line in Game 2, the Mavericks wasted little time getting things going, as Loney scored a pair of goals to go along with single markers from Willow Scott and Atlee Feiffer as they took a 4-0 lead out of the first period.
Western Prairie had goals from Pernitsky and Tylan Blanchette to get back within a pair, but Moose Jaw’s Taylor Hawkins scored late in the third to finish things off.
Game 1 saw Western Prairie tie the game up midway through the third period before Chloe Dean scored 2:03 into the second overtime to give her crew the victory.
Hawkins had a pair of goals for Moose Jaw, Hopkinson their other marker. Dean’s OT goal was her third of the contest, Emersyn Brown also scored for Unity.
If everything goes according to plan, the Mavericks will be facing a very familiar foe in the league final -- none other than the Moose Jaw Carpet One Mavericks 1, who trail their East Division championship series 1-0 after a 3-1 loss to the Parkland Fire at the Bert Hunt on Thursday.
Kaley Allard and Abby Korolek scored for the Fire in the second period to snap a scoreless draw before Moose Jaw’s Leila Olfert and Korolek exchanged goals in the second period.
Lily Whitney was the winning goaltender, Charolette McKee took the loss for Moose Jaw.
Game two of the best-of-three series takes place Monday, Mar. 20 in Melville, with the third and deciding game on Tuesday, Mar. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bert Hunt.
