By Jeff D'Andrea

Bears down 2-0 in final series, hope for a repeat of 2009

Mar 25, 2018 | 9:41 PM

After the Prince Albert Northern Bears fell 4-2 to the Saskatoon Stars Sunday night at the Art Hauser Centre, they see themselves on the brink of elimination from the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League finals. The Stars have a 2-0 stranglehold in the series and are one win away from the championship, a year after the Bears’ swept the Stars in the finals.

But Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby doesn’t have to look too far back into the history books to find the last time the Bears pulled off the reverse sweep to win the league.

Back in 2009, the Bears were down two-games-to-none against the Swift Current Wildcats, but completed the reverse sweep to win the Bears’ first provincial championship.

“They’re not going to be the first group to do it, but it would sure be nice to be the second group to do it. It is possible,” Willoughby said. “We’re not pushing any panic buttons… We just gave them the message that it’s been done before, and we can do it as well.”

The Bears thought they were going to go into the second period with a 1-0 lead, after Hannah Koroll scored a power play goal.

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But the Stars scored twice late in the period to give the Stars a 2-1 lead heading into the second. Mackenna Parker and Grace Shirley both scored just 37 seconds apart to surge the Stars in front.

That score would remain until 5:40 remained in the game, when Bears forward Abby Soyko went end-to-end to tie the game.

But on the ensuing faceoff, Joelle Fiala scored 17 seconds later for the game winner. Kaitlin Jockims, who was in Prince Albert all weekend playing Hoopla for Saskatoon Centennial, scored on a breakaway 1:50 later to put the game out of reach.

“We were just talking in the room, maybe we missed a couple bounces here or there,” Willoughby said. “That second goal for us was big, and they were able to answer back right away. We didn’t answer the bell in a few areas.

“The end of the first period was huge for us if we could have got out of there 1-0. It’s so tight that you start looking at such little things, hopefully they go our way in the next game.”

Bears forward Rhea Peterson fell hard into the boards as she was driving the net late in the second period. She didn’t return for the third.

“Her arm, I’m not sure right now if she’s going to be back for Tuesday, but she fell into the boards quite heavily,” Willoughby said. “Her arm took the brunt of it, there’s worse body parts that could have taken it. We just hope she’s going to be okay and back for us. She provides lots of energy.”

The Bears will head to Saskatoon to play Game 3 on Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. at the Agriplace Arena.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW