Thirteen-year-old Katelyn Breitkreuz of Springside was the first to do what no other female hockey player in Springside has ever done before and that's score a goal against a Russian team in her home arena.
Before the night was done she scored two more.
Her big night came on a cold night at the Springside Arena last Tuesday as the Moscow Atlant made a stop on their 小蓝视频 Saskatchewan hockey tour of 2010.
Breitkreuz's first of three goals couldn't have come at a better time; it was recorded at the 19:55 mark of the first period. It was followed by what was probably the biggest ovation for a goal scored at Springside.
"Yeah, it's usually definitely not this big. It's nothing like we've ever had before," said Breitkreuz shortly after her first goal which came in front of the biggest crowd she said she's ever seen at a Lions' game.
She couldn't contain her own enthusiasm when asked what it's like to score with 10 seconds left against the visiting Russians.
"It's hard to know what to expect. They're good," she said of her Russian counterparts. The Russians have been winning."
'The Russians Are Coming' hockey tour made its seventh stop of their tour 22-kilometres west of Yorkton, as a group of female hockey players have been running all over southern Saskatchewan in search of some good competition amongst local teams.
Regardless though who won this one, it's pretty safe to say everybody had fun with it.
"I thought it was awesome," said Herb Breitkreuz, head coach of the Springside Parkland Lions after the buzzer had sounded, who went on to add that "we haven't seen this many people here in a long time. We knew they would be pretty strong," he said of the young Moscow hotshots who put on a goal-scoring show in the game's middle frame.
Violetta Simonova, the woman at the helm of the Atlant, was equally pleased with everything Springside she witnessed that evening.
"This was a very good team, with a very good goalie (Tamara Ulmer). It was a hard game for us."The teams exchanged goals in the opening period however the Russians went to work in the second period, scoring five goals, two came from Ekaterina Spasenko.
Sprinside answered back with two goals; Breitkreuz tallied her second on the night from MacKenzie Binkley and Nicole Bileski tallied from Breitkreuz and Tracy Prybylski.
Coach Simonova added that female hockey is not as developed in Russia, as there are only about 300 female players in the country, she said.
Victoriya Dyadunova, who played on the blueline said she "received a game-game hockey experience" as well as an "experience in (speaking) english."
Here you have some very strong competition, but the luck was on our side tonight," she said of the 8-4 win.
The Atlant opened the scoring when Spasenko scored on a beautiful snap shot to the corner a 12:12 of the first period.
Breitkruez sent the crowd nuts when she evened the affair with 10.5 seconds left in the opening period from Bileski and Jennifer Jones.
Vika Chmyrikova gave Moscow the lead again only 19 seconds into the second period but Breitkreuz got that one back too, at 14:01 from Binkley to tie it up at 2-2.
Moscow would tally four more goals before the period was done, to take a 6-3 lead into the second intermission, including Spasenko, who also rounded out the hat trick.
Breitkreuz finished her three-goal effort in the third period.
"They're good," she said of her opponents. "We have been following them pretty close."
The game, which coaches of both sides said they had never been a part of, attracted over 300 fans to the arena. A large percentage of those tickets had been sold before the day of the game.The Atlant were scheduled to visit Moose Jaw the following night.
