First place in the Esso Cup round robin was on the line Tuesday between the top two teams at the 10th annual midget AAA female nationals.
The score between the St. Albert Ron Hodgson Slash, the defending champions, and Saskatoon Stars was unavailable at press time.
Both teams were victorious in two games at Bridgewater, N.S.
The Slash edged Pionnieres de Lanaudiere 3-2 in a shootout Sunday and clobbered the host team, Metro Boston Pizza (0-2) of Bedford, N.S., 8-0 on Monday.
The Stars, who hadn’t lost a game since dropping four in a row from Dec. 17 to Jan. 7, blanked the Brampton Canadettes 5-0 and the Pionnieres 3-0.
The Stars, bronze medallists in 2015, have five players competing in their third Esso Cup and four are playing in their second nationals.
The Slash, 28-10-1 entering the Esso Cup, rallied twice in the last eight minutes to pull even with the Pionnieres (1-1-1) on goals by McKenzie Hewett.
After a scoreless five-minute overtime, Jaden Bogden and Tyra Meropoulis lit the lamp in the shootout while Camryn Drever stopped all four attempts by the Quebec reps.
Shots were 31-25 overall for the Slash.
Vanessa Verbitsky finished with two assists.
“We came in kind of shaky but getting the first win gives is a lot of confidence (for Monday) and the rest of the week,” Hewett told the Hockey Canada media rep for nationals. “All year we’ve been a third period team. We have a no-quit mentality and everyone stayed positive on the bench. That helped us in the game and gave us confidence to win.”
Five different players for the Pacific reps combined for eight goals against Metro Boston Pizza (0-2).
“It’s been like that all year, different girls are going to score every night and that comes from our mentality of putting the team first," said head coach Dan Auchenberg. "Sometimes our hardest worker doesn’t get a single point but we stress that if you work hard and share the puck points will come."
Verbitsky and Meropoulis led the way with two goals apiece as the Slash racked up seven in the last two periods.
Verbitsky’s first goal was scored on the team’s 16th shot with 8.6 seconds left in the opening frame.
Verbitsky collected three points in total, Alexis Butz and Hewett had one goal and one assist each and Taylor Anker added three helpers.
Brianna Sank faced 16 shots while the Slash were credited with 46 shots.
The Slash, with 10 returnees in the lineup from last year’s 7-0 team at nationals that allowed only seven goals as the first Alberta squad to win the Esso Cup, close out the round robin against the Northern Selects (1-1-1) of Nova Scotia today and Brampton (1-1) Thursday.
The semifinals are Friday and the medal finals are Saturday. The gold-medal game will be broadcast on TSN.
Visit www.hockeycanada.ca for the Esso Cup website.
