The Rebels celebrate a goal against the Northern Bears in the Esso Cup on April 26, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Esso Cup

Neufeldt stellar in goal, Rebels end Bears Esso Cup hopes with 5-2 win

Apr 26, 2023 | 11:18 PM

PRINCE ALBERT, SK – The Regina Rebels were all gas on Wednesday night, defeating the Prince Albert Northern Bears 5-2 at the Art Hauser Centre.

The loss officially put the Bears out of semi-final contention whereas Regina’s hopes are still alive heading into the final day of round robin play.

Prince Albert head coach Steve Young told paNOW he thought his team wasn’t aggressive enough to start the game.

“I thought we played with too much caution,” he explained. “We knew what we had to do against this hockey club and I think we were way too cautious in the first period. We gave them too much time and space and when they get time and space, they know what to do.”

Young also talked about how his team is handling the tough schedule with the Bears set to play five games in five days.

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“I think we’ve done well,” he continued. “I think we’ll be ready for it, probably the biggest thing we did on our time off was making sure our conditioning was good cause that’s one thing we could control so we feel that we’re good to go that way.”

PA netminder Annika Neufeldt was incredible between the pipes, stopping 48 shots against the Rebels in the loss.

“It’s a lot more fun (playing at the Esso Cup), it doesn’t seem as stressful as you would in regular season. It’s just fun to play a bunch of new teams and to play against some old ones so yeah it was a lot of fun out there.”

Her counterpart, Chloe Sorenson, was in goal for the Rebels and made 15 stops to help Regina improve to a 2-2-0 record. Greta Henderson and Berlin Lolacher each had a pair of goals for the team, while Amber Daley also found the back of the net. Addison Greve and Ashley Grice both tallied two assists to round out Regina’s scoring.

For the Bears, Kassie Ferster and Kinley Brassard both tickled twine while Julia Cey, Jasmine Kohl, Beau Chisholm, and Kelsey Ledoux collected the helpers.

COMPLETE BOX SCORE

The Bears found themselves trailing after the opening frame but only by one courtesy of Rebels captain Henderson. Regina also led the shots 20-1 heading into the second period.

The Rebels kept rolling into the middle frame where they stayed on the gas, scoring twice more while increasing their shot advantage to 36-8 heading into the third.

Not long into the final period and the Bears managed to get on the board. A Cey shot was deflected in front by a streaking Ferster and past the Regina netminder to pull it back to a two goal game.

The Rebels stayed on the attack and scored a mere 20 seconds later with Lolacher finding the back of the net. Lolacher would score again a short time later to make it a 5-1 game.

Prince Albert added another midway through the period with Brassard scoring her second of the tournament, cutting the lead back down to three.

With 5:05 to go in the game, Regina’s Makayla Peters went down in a scary collision along the boards. Following a lengthy delay, Peters was helped off the ice and did not return. Following the delay, neither team found the back of the net again as Regina took it, 5-2.

The Bears wrap up their Esso Cup tournament Thursday night against the Ontario representatives Stoney Creek Sabres with puck drop at 7 p.m.

—

logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann