By Jeff D'Andrea

Bears cool a hot Sharks’ goalie in OT; get 4 awards

Feb 22, 2017 | 8:45 PM

The Prince Albert Northern Bears had little problems with the Battlefords Sharks in the regular season, beating them in their last 18 meeting and outscoring 28-7 in four wins this year. But the playoffs are a different animal.

The Bears eventually prevailed 2-1 in overtime Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre thanks to Bears’ defender Jordan Ashe’s game winner in the extra frame, to give the Bears a 1-0 advantage in the first-to-three wins series.

If this game and the Bears-Sharks’ history are any indication, this series could be a long one. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs, the Bears needed all five games to beat the Sharks and advance to the second round of the 2014-15 playoffs.

“It’s not uncommon waters that we just went through there. We’re happy with the way we played, but we got the win in probably the most difficult way possible,” Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby said. “We got what we wanted, but we have to make these sort of games easier on ourselves. We have to take advantage of our hard work. I’m not sure how many breakaways we missed, 2-on-1’s, but they can bite you if you don’t take advantage of it.”

Sharks goaltender Chantel Weller was a thorn in the Bears’ side all game. Despite the Sharks were outshot 39-8, Weller held the fort all game and made some physics defying saves. Bears’ forward Abby Soyko was so flabbergasted after being robbed by Weller’s glove hand on a breakaway that she went and asked Weller how she made the save.

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The Bears also had some tough luck to deal with. With just 10 seconds left in regulation, Bears forward Jasper Desmarais was sprung out on a breakaway, hit the post and the puck appeared to be creeping on the goalline. Kate Ball tapped it in, but by then, the play had been whistled dead by the officials despite not having been covered.

“The ref just said he blew the whistle inadvertently,” Willoughby said. “The puck was loose, it’s just a reaction thing. Maybe everybody was anticipating the whistle, but there wasn’t one needed there—I’m not sure.”

On Jordan Ashe’s overtime marker, Weller thought she had the puck covered but a whistle never game. Ashe skated around the net, found the loose puck behind Weller and gave the Bears the victory.

“It was like time stood still,” Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby said. “We were just [saying] ‘what is going to happen next?’ It was a good ending.”

Abby Soyko had the lone Bears’ goal in overtime. Ali Aitken scored for the Sharks.

League Awards

Prior to the game, the Bears were awarded four different SFMAAAHL awards. Brooke Hobson took home two of them, the Top Defenceman and First Team All-Star Awards. Abby Soyko was named as a Second Team All-Star and Camryn Amundson was the Most Sportsmanlike Player.

Jeff D’Andrea is paNOW’s sports reporter. He can be reached at jdandrea@jpbg.ca or tweet him @jeff_paNOW.