By Jeff D'Andrea

Vance’s swan song season one for the ages

Feb 5, 2015 | 6:05 AM

Even if the Prince Albert A&W Bears don’t finish with the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship, their long-serving goaltender in Jessica Vance has had quite the swan song season.

This year alone, Vance has set numerous SFMAAAHL records, committed to the University of Manitoba, and earned a berth at the Canada Winter Games along with Bears teammate Brooke Hobson.

More recently, Vance earned the league’s second star for the month of January.

She won all of her games in that month—two by shutout. Vance surrendered just three goals on 100 shots in January to finish the month with a .970 save percentage and .75 goals against average.

“It’s really good,” said Vance. “I’m really confident with my play and everything.

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“It’s good for the team, too. I like to help them out and get the win—that’s the most important win.”

Vance has done a ton of that in her career.

Since joining the Bears to start the 2010-2011 at just 13 years old, Vance has recorded 48 wins in her career—nine more than any other goaltender in SFMAAAHL history. She also owns records for shutouts with 16, games played with 91 and minutes played with 5,128.

“She deserves it too,” said Bears head coach Jeff Willoughby. “Five years in the league, she deserves to go a long ways and have a prize at the end of the year.

“She’s peaking at the right time and looking like she’s going to be tough to score on. That’s exactly what we need.”

The Bears will wrap up their regular season with two games against the Melville Prairie Fire Feb. 21-22. Should they win both of those games, they’ll beat the Bears’ franchise record for wins of 19.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea