By Jeff D'Andrea

Bears sweep Stars, win SFMAAAHL championship

Mar 21, 2017 | 10:19 PM

SASKATOON—The Saskatoon Stars entered the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League finals with just three losses all season long (one in overtime) and were on a 20-game winning streak.

Despite the odds against them, the Prince Albert Northern Bears beat them three straight times when it mattered to claim the 2016-17 SFMAAAHL title.

The Bears lifted the provincial trophy after a 4-2 victory Tuesday at the Agriplace Arena in Saskatoon. The Bears previously picked up a 2-1 win in Game 2 on Sunday and a 5-1 decision on March 16.

“The girls were just resilient, tenacious…where’s a dictionary? I could just keep going on with good words,” Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby said. “Basically, they were consistent with what they had to do. They always stayed on task.”

“That’s a hell of a team, Saskatoon. Hats off to them. They pushed us. It was very hard, but we’re really happy to come away with three wins here.”

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The championship is the Bears’ first since 2009. They last reached the finals in 2015, but were swept by the Stars.

Camryn Amundson is one of those seven Bears that were on that 2015 team. The 16-year-old forward from Debden contributed at key times, scoring one goal in each of the three final series games against the Stars.

By far her biggest goal was the last one she scored with 8:41 left in the third period on Tuesday to put the Bears up 3-2, which ended up being the finals winner.

Her linemate Jasper Desmarais won a battle at her own blueline and sprung away for a 2-on-1 break, finding Amundson open in front of the net on a break.

“Oh, just please put this in the net,” Amundson thought to herself before beating Stars goaltender Jordan Ivanco. “I was praying throughout the whole game. God helps me with everything. That was just one more time He did.”

Jadyn Kushniruk scored with the empty net with 24 seconds left to give the Bears the 4-2 final. Abby Soyko scored the Bears’ first goal, and got the primary assist on Brooklyn Anderson’s marker.

Stars’ Brooke Hausermann scored the lone goal in the first period. Jordyn Gerlitz tied the game at 2-2 for the Stars late in the second period, before Amundson’s game winner.

Ryan Fontaine made 24 saves in goal for the Bears.

The Stars had some of the most lethal scorers in Grace Shirley, Mackenna Parker and Joelle Fiala, who were ranked first, second and third respectively in SFMAAAHL playoff scoring. Against the Bears, the Stars’ big three combined for just 1 goal and two assists. The Stars as a team scored just four goals total against the Bears in the final series.

“We just had to be aware when they’re out there. If you know they’re out there, maybe you can prepare yourself a little better instead of being caught by surprise,” Willoughby said. “We did a good job of that.”

The Bears dominated the playoffs, winning all nine games they played and outscored their opposition 33-11 in those nine games.

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