SAHA girls get season started in a big way

By JAMES TUBB on October 5, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The South Alberta Hockey Academy’s U18 women’s team got the 2022-23 CSSHL underway in strong fashion.

The SAHA women’s team swept all four of their games last weekend, all on the road, for a strong start to the year. Head coach Evan Vossen says they had high expectations coming off last season and the returning group they had. He says it was a well rounded effort all weekend and that it’s a positive to see it come on the road.

“We had a bunch of different lineup combinations but all the girls were playing well together in this situation they were put in,” Vossen said. “We had really strong goaltending in all four games and then we got a late goal in the game that went to overtime, a character win for us.

“It’s a huge plus to be able to get out of the gate like that on the road. Our focus here will just be to try and continue to build on that and not be complacent with just a good opening weekend.”

SAHA opened the slate of games with a 2-1 win over St. Mary’s Academy on Thursday. Chloe Stewart and Julie Barlow scored for the blue and white and Devyn Amundson made 31 saves.

Friday’s contest was the character win, a 3-2 overtime victory against Rink Hockey Academy Winnipeg. SAHA scored first, a goal from captain Kendal Davidson early in the first frame. After two RINK goals, Davidson scored her second of the game to tie it up at 2-2 in the third. Tea Pearce scored the overtime winner only 22 seconds into the extra frame and Maddy Ferguson had 27 saves in the win.

On Saturday, SAHA led the Edge School early and held on for the 4-2 win. Kenzie Carson, Pearse, Davidson and Stewart all scored in the win. Amundson had 41 saves.

The club wrapped up the weekend with another close victory against St. Mary’s, again beating them 2-1 in the rematch. Pearce and Riley Grimlich had the offensive markers for SAHA as Ferguson turned aside 51 shots for the victory.

Vossen said the strong play of their two goaltenders early in the season gives the whole team confidence.

“As a team when you have a couple of strong outings by both of your goaltenders it gives them a lot of confidence to be able to play incredible,” Vossen said.

The team’s next CSSHL game isn’t until Oct. 14 when they begin another three-game slate of road games. Until then, Vossen says they will have exhibition games this weekend against the Olds College Broncos and Red Deer Polytechnic of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. On top of that, Vossen said the focus at practice is getting the special teams in order and running smoothly before the next slate of CSSHL games.

“There’ll be a couple of things we just touch on a little bit here, it’s not going to be something that’s going to be fixed here or be running smoothly in the next week or two, but just giving it a bit more time and effort in the coming months,” Vossen said.

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