By Jeff D'Andrea

Bears’ Fontaine shuts the door on Swift

Oct 17, 2015 | 3:53 PM

Prince Albert’s 15-year-old rookie Ryan Fontaine was named as the Prince Albert A&W Bears’ player of the game in their 3-1 win over the Swift Current Wildcats Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre. The win split the two-game weekend series with the Wildcats, who won 2-1 on Saturday. The Bears are now 4-2 on the season.

Fontaine made 29 saves for her second win on the year in three starts. She stopped the first 26 shots she faced in the first 54 minutes before Wildcats forward Chloe Smith stopped her shutout bid with 6:14 left in the third period.

Although she appeared calm and solid in goal for the Bears throughout the game, Fontaine was anything but on the inside.

“I was shaking. I was so nervous,” said Fontaine as she was trying to hold on to a shutout. “Our team, we normally do really well in the third period, but so does Swift so that just made it worse.

“It was a big surprise. I was so scared. I’m a rookie, so I didn’t even know what to do. It’s my first big win, it’s really exciting.”

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But Fontaine did a good job hiding her butterflies. Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby didn’t see a nervous goalie in his net Saturday.

“Ryan played outstanding. The goal they did score, they scored on the third or fourth shot. She made two unbelievable saves before that,” said Willoughby. “They threw 30 pucks at our net, they had a good chance to beat us but Ryan took that away from them and gave us a chance to win. We’re really happy with her performance.”

Bears 3 Wildcats 1

Three minutes into the game, Bears defender Abby Soyko launched a point blast top corner to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

The score stayed that way until late in the third period, when Wildcats forward Chloe Smith scored on the power play with 6:14 left in the game. But 58 seconds later, Bears rookie Camryn Amundson restored the Bears lead. That turned out to be the game winner, especially when Bears rookie Kassidy Kicia added an insurance marker.

Amundson doesn’t always score, but when she does, it’s a crucial, clutch goal. That was her first of the season through six games. The last time Amundson scored was on March 14 in double overtime to beat the Weyburn Gold Wings 4-3 to go ahead 2-1 in last year’s semifinal series.

“It was just a matter of time before she got hers. Six games in and she scores one of the biggest goals of the year this far,” said Willoughby. “She’s been a clutch player for us and she’s just going to get stronger and more confident. It’s a big goal for the team and a big goal for Camryn.”

I think I’ve done really well. I have one loss, but I still think I played a pretty good game. Our team hasn’t really had a bad game at all—we’re doing really well as a team for the little time we’ve been together.

Wildcats 2 Bears 1

The Wildcats skated away with a 2-1 win to open the two-game set this weekend. The Bears’ loss was their first defeat since their Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA season opener on Oct. 3 and snapped a three-game win streak.

Jayda Sachs scored the lone goal for the Bears in the first, before the Wildcats got two in the second period from Mikayla Swallow and Merissa Zerr.

Jasey Book made 31 saves for the Wildcats, Shayla Youngman made 20 for the Bears.

Although the Bears played their fifth game on Friday to sit at 3-2 on the year, it was the Wildcats’ regular season debut. They had recently played some regular season games in an Alberta tournament last week.

The Bears’ next game is on Wednesday against the Battlefords Sharks. Game time is at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea