U18 SAHA female team hits slide in final games of calendar year

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on December 21, 2021.

The South Alberta Hockey Academy Female U18 Prep squad head into their Holiday break dropping a close series last weekend.

SAHA hosted the Northern Alberta Extreme Female U18 prep team for a three-game stint last weekend and lost all three in close contests.

In the Friday games, SAHA jumped out to an early lead over NAX but fell 4-1. Janaya Laqua’s first goal of the season assisted by Riley Gramlich and Kiyra Kletzel was the only offence for the SAHA girls as NAX had a run of four unanswered goals to pick up the win. Devyn Amundson stopped 30 of the 34 shots she faced between the pipes for SAHA.

Saturday’s game required a shootout with NAX taking the win over SAHA by a score of 4-3.

It was a back-and-forth affair as SAHA fell behind 1-0 after the first until Tea Pearce tied the game up on her fifth goal of the season. Emersyn Baugh and Maddison Andrew picked up the helpers on the goal.

NAX scored two straight goals to go up 3-1 early in the third period. Chloe Stewart notched her first of the season over halfway through the third to bring SAHA within one. Brianna Finke and Laqua had the assists on Stewart’s power play marker.

With less than four minutes left in regulation time Riley Gramlich scored on another SAHA power play to the tie game up at 3-3. Her fifth of the season was assisted by Sakura Ito and Laqua as neither team added anymore offence and the game headed to extra time.

With no offence in the five-minute overtime frame, the shootout was needed to find a winner. SAHA’s three shooters Laqua, Kendal Davison and Gramlich did not score as NAX secured the win on their second shooter.

Maddy Ferguson was in net for SAHA and turned aside 26 of the 29 shots she faced before the shootout.

In the final game of the three game series, SAHA jumped out to another early lead but fell 2-1. Alyssa McCasey got SAHA on the board in the first five minutes of the game for her first of the year. Norah Andronyk and Baugh picked up the assists on the lone SAHA goal of the game. NAX scored in the first and second period and held SAHA off the board in the third period to secure the win.

Amundson drew into the crease for her second start of the weekend and stopped 17 of the 19 shots she faced in the loss. The U18 SAHA girls are off until the new year with their first game coming on Jan. 7.

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