The Estevan Power Dodge peewee A Vipers have advanced to a pair of finals. The Vipers punched their ticket to the South Saskatchewan Female Hockey League (SSFHL) final with a 3-0 victory over the Swift Current Fire Cats on Saturday afternoon at the Civic Auditorium. Estevan won the bestof-three semifinal series in three games, and will face the Moose Jaw Mavericks in a battle of the top two teams in the league in the final. The Mavericks finished first in the league with a 16-1-3 record. The Vipers were second at 14-4-2. Estevan handed the Mavericks their only loss during the regular season, a 5-2 decision back in October. The Mavericks defeated the Vipers once in the season, and the two teams played to a pair of draws. Vipers coach Chris Terrett said Moose Jaw has a couple of really strong forwards and a very good defence. “Out of all four games, there was never a blowout,”
said Terrett. “They were always close, back-andforth. It’s fun. The girls get excited to play them, and I’m looking forward to it.” Swift Current staved off elimination with a 3-0 win in Game 2 at the Civic Auditorium on March 10. Sadie Keller and Chloe Shumaker scored in the first 11 minutes of the first period to give the Fire Cats a 2-0 lead, and Keller’s second goal with 8:59 to play in the second period rounded out the scoring. “We had a really rough
first period,” said Terrett. “They had, I believe, two breakaways in the first 11 minutes of that game, and scored on both of them.” Terrett doesn’t believe the Vipers were overconfident in the game, but he believes they weren’t ready for Swift Current’s speed and work ethic. Game 3 was scoreless until McKenna Walls scored 6:53 into the second period to give the Vipers a 1-0 lead. Morgan Kjersem doubled the lead with 2:50 to go in the second period,
and put the game away with a goal with 10:38 to play in the third. “I don’t know what the shot total wound up being, but we outplayed them,” said Terrett. “In the second period of that game, I bet they had 22 icings or 23 icings.” The Vipers have also advanced to the Saskatchewan Hockey Association’s provincial peewee A final, where they will play Turtleford. Estevan defeated Melville 16-1 in the twogame, total-point south
final, taking Game 1 9-1 on March 8 at the Civic Auditorium, and Game 2 7-0 on March 13 in Grenfell. Jacey Farr and Hannah Terrett scored in the opening four minutes of the first period of Game 1 against Melville. Hannah Terrett and Morgan Kjersem scored before the opening frame was out to give Estevan a 4-0 lead. Callie McMeteger put up Melville’s lone goal with 69 seconds to play in the opening period. Caydence Chapman,
Kamri Olfert, Walls and Kylie Davis scored in the second, and Kjersem had her third of the game in the third to round out the scoring. “We got all the bounces and all of the breaks in that game,” said Chris Terrett. Walls had the lone goal in the first period of Game 2 against Melville. Olfert, Kjersem and Walls scored in the second, and then Walls scored once in the third, and Olfert tallied twice in the period, to round out their respective hat tricks. Chloe Sorenson was in goal for all four games. The Vipers will play Turtleford in the provincial final. Terrett said he doesn’t know what to expect from that team, but he noted they don’t have a female program up there, so their female players compete on boys’ teams. “I did have a look at their roster, and it’s all second-year players. I didn’t see very many first years.” Turtleford dominated Prince Albert and Saskatoon in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and Terrett expects they will be a fast and aggressive team.
