Bree Purcell leads the flyby after scoring her first of the campaign against the Weyburn Gold Wings on Sept. 30, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Rough start

Bears salvage single point in back-to-back losses against Weyburn

Oct 1, 2023 | 5:45 PM

The Mann-Northway Northern Bears took a pair of one-goal losses against the Weyburn Richardson Pioneer Gold Wings over the weekend, falling 5-4 in double overtime on Saturday and 3-2 on Sunday at the Art Hauser Centre.

Saturday was also the season-opener for Prince Albert where the Bears wore special jerseys in honour of the clubs former manager, Bruce Vance.

The special edition jerseys were worn for one game only and were primary orange with a blue band to represent colon cancer, the disease that Vance was diagnosed with back in 2013 and again in 2020. A custom logo donned the front crest with the bear holding a blue ribbon and read “Team Bruce” on the front and back. The jersey’s were auctioned off following the game with proceeds going to the Victoria Hospital Foundation and Cancer Foundation of Saskatchewan.

The Northern Bears wore special jersey’s in honour of former manager Bruce Vance during Saturday’s season opener. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

“The night was done very well. For Bruce, he’s a solid citizen of this community and I think he deserves everything he gets. For everybody and everything they put into it with donations and everything like that, it’s very showing of how important Bruce is to this community and I thought it was done very well,” said Bears Head Coach Steve Young.

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The words “Team Bruce” were written on the fronts and backs of either jersey. The jersey’s were auctioned off following the game with proceeds going to the Victoria Hospital Foundation and Cancer Foundation of Saskatchewan. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

Julia Cey earned the first star honours during the Team Bruce fundraiser game on Saturday when she scored two goals to get her season off on the right foot. Bree Purcell and Elizabeth Udell also scored for the Bears while Emery Rogers led the assists department with three. Mikiya Anderson had a pair of helpers as well and Marly Dumanski and Tristyn Endicott each collected an assist.

On Sunday, 15-year-old rookie Addison Davidge stole the show in Prince Albert’s 3-2 loss and scored both a goal and an assist. Following her first star performance, she walked paNOW through how her first career goal played out through her eyes.

“I saw Bree [Purcell] getting ready with the puck and I skated behind her and told her to drop it back and she did,” Davidge said. “I looked up and noticed no one was [covering] so I decided to shoot and it went in.”

Tristyn Endicott was the other goal scorer and along with Purcell in the assist column was Dumanski who had the only other helper in the game.

For Weyburn, Abigail Manz led the weekend in points with a goal and three assists while Rori Dickie was one behind with a goal and two assists. Julia Durr had a goal and an assist, Jade Olszewski had a pair of goals and Hadley Revenko, Ayla Klus, and Kiah Shields also found the back of the net. Nola Exner finished her weekend with a couple of assists while Victoria Mann and Brooklyn Siemens both collected one.

Between the pipes in both games for the Bears was Nikita Krayetski who combined for 47 saves. Meanwhile, the Gold Wings played both their goalies with Hailey Sibbald stopping 43 shots on Saturday and Amy Swayze making 33 saves on Sunday.

Following the single-point weekend, Young said that there were both positive and negative takeaways from either game.

“We had a lot of good things but at the same time, there are some things that we’ll be able to work on and make our team stronger for the next two games,” he said.

The Bears have a lengthy break before hitting the ice again on Oct. 21 when they travel to the Queen City to face off against the reigning Esso Cup bronze medalists, Regina Rebels.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com