SAHA finishes second at Female World Sport School Challenge

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on February 1, 2023.

sports@medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

The South Alberta Hockey Academy’s U18 women’s team came out with silver at the Female World Sport School Challenge.

The local hockey academy took part in the 16-team hockey challenge hosted in Winnipeg over the weekend and lost 3-2 in the gold medal game Sunday against the Calgary Fire. Tea Pearce and Kiyra Kletzel had SAHA’s goals in the finals, Maddy Ferguson made 38 saves.

They faced the Thunder Bay Queens on Saturday and beat them 3-2 to punch their finals ticket. Kendal Davidson had two goals and Kletzel had a goal while Devyn Amundson made 27 saves.

In their first three games of the challenge, SAHA beat Thompson Okanagan Lakers 2-1 and the Winnipeg Ice 3-2 on Friday after beating Eastman Selects 5-1 on Friday to open their tournament.

Keira Grant and Marley Howes scored against Thompson, Ferguson had 23 saves. Against the Ice, Brianna Finke and Kletzel scored and Amundson made 27 saves for the win. In their Challenge opening victory, Lauren Hassler, Finke, Pearce and Davidson each had a goal and Ferguson made 21 saves.

SAHA’s women’s team (11-9-0-1) has one CSSHL game on their docket this weekend, hosting Edge school Friday at Big Marble Go Centre for a 7:30 p.m. game.

SAHA men’s team

sweeps weekend

The South Alberta Hockey Academy men’s U18 team also had themselves a busy weekend, playing three games in roughly 18 hours, winning all three.

They opened their weekend with a 6-3 win over OHA Edmonton on Friday. After a delay with their bus, SAHA arrived less than an hour before the game and received a two-goal, three-assist performance from Gavin McKenna to lead the way in the win. Kade Duell added two goals and an assist and Kadon McCann had a goal and two assists himself, Zach Zahara made 25 saves.

On Saturday they picked up a game against NAX that had been postponed due to a power outage, beating the academy 4-3 in a shootout.

Ryan Miller led the way with two goals and McKenna had a goal and two assists in the win and scored in the shootout. McCann had the shootout winner, Zahara made 26 saves for the win.

SAHA had a rematch with NAX that afternoon and came away with the 5-2 win. Duell had two goals, McKenna added a goal and an assist with Elias Eisenbarth and Taylor Ivison each scoring a goal in the win. Nathan Hawkins had three assists, Matthew Paranych chipped in two helpers and Zahara made 40 saves for the third victory of the weekend.

With his 10-point weekend, McKenna is the CSSHL’s U18 scoring leader with 34 goals and 69 points in 24 games played, 10 points ahead of second place in three fewer games. The 15-year-old is the highest scoring player across all CSSHL levels.

The SAHA men’s team (20-6-0-2) has three road games this weekend, facing the Burnaby Winter Club on Friday, RHA Kelowna on Saturday and Delta Hockey Academy on Sunday, all games played at Edge in Calgary.

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