NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
South Alberta Hockey Academy forward Brianna Finke admires her backhand shot in the 5-0 win over Pilot Mound Hockey Academy on Oct. 31 at Big Marble Go Centre.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The South Alberta Hockey Academy women’s team have put themselves in a spot where they can have a strong second half.
The U18 women’s team has a record of 11-6-1 through the first half of a CSSHL season that started with a streak of seven wins in a row. At the start of the season head coach Evan Vossen said he wanted his team to be hard to play against every night. He’s happy with where they are at after the first half.
“It’s been a really good start and great first half,” Vossen said. “The girls are happy with where they’re at and I am, too. It puts us in a good place to make the second half really count.”
He says with the busy schedule they had in the first half there is room for stronger play and hungrier drive on the ice come the new year.
“There has been a lot of days where our compete or battle pieces have been implemented, those are just a couple things and some loose puck battles that we can be a little bit hungrier to win,” Vossen said. “Because sometimes offence and scoring goals is a little tough. So just finding ways around the net to be a little bit hungrier for those loose pucks is key.”
SAHA is tied for sixth in league scoring with 47 goals for and is fifth in goals against, only allowing 36. That’s all in part due to goaltenders Maddy Ferguson and Devyn Amundson having a 1.76 and a 2.10 goals against average, respectively.
Amundson, a Cypress County product, says the duo works well together and has had one another’s back.
“We’re close where we don’t have any issues and we both have different styles,” Amundson said. “Together we can help each other because we’re not the same goalie. We’ve roomed together pretty much every time we go away for showcase, so we’re able to help each other and just be that support that I think is important to have.”
This is the second season with SAHA for the 18-year-old net minder who has enjoyed how open this season has been compared to last year when they could not travel as much due to COVID-19. She’s already looking forward to SAHA’s first games back from the Holidays when they host a Jan. 12-15 showcase at the Big Marble Go Centre.
“We get to start off our New Year at home, we’ve only played here twice,” Amundson said. “We’ll have a showcase here and we’re against the top tier of the CSSHL. So I’m really excited for my family and my friends to be able to watch us and see how far we’ve come.”
SAHA is led offensively by forward Tea Pearce who has 12 goals and 19 points in 12 games. Defenders Kendal Davidson (seven goals, 13 points) and Riley Grimlich (one goal, 10 points) are second and third in team scoring. Brianna Finke is the second highest scoring forward, with six goals and eight assists. She was also on last year’s team and has enjoyed the second year of playing with a majority of the same core.
“It’s been so fun, we already had such good montra from last year seeing each other every day, it’s just been amazing,” Finke said. “If you look at our record, we’ve been doing really well now that we’re in the top tier and it’s just like our bonds are going out into our play on the ice.”
The Cypress County product is looking forward to SAHA getting back to the playoffs and hopefully going further than their three games last season.
“We’re going to bounce back from last year and just show everybody who we are,” the 16-year-old said. “Because we’re such a young program nobody really believes in us and we’re going to prove them wrong.”
