It is a stat no team wants - the Battlefords Sharks finished their third straight regular season with the least amount of points in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League.
The result of their final game of the regular season Tuesday against the Prince Albert Bears meant nothing, as the Sharks were locked into the eighth spot in the standings. With that said, the Sharks need to be given credit. They played one of their better games of the season and despite taking five minutes off in the first and half of the third, the game would have been tied.
The Sharks' defence did a good job of moving the puck up to the forwards and making heads up plays while the forwards drove to the net and generated 33 shots, as the Sharks outshot prince Albert 33-30.
Danielle Miller scored on a Prince Albert powerplay nearly five minutes into the first. Kaitlin Willoughby added another minutes later and Carlee Hrenkiw scored to put Prince Albert up 3-0. The Bears scored three goals in a span of 5:06 and forced the Sharks to make a goaltending change. Jacy Akre replaced Hannah Brock in the Sharks' net.
Akre stood tall for the remainder of the first and the all of the second, but Prince Albert finally found a way to beat her nearly three minutes into the third. Crystal Berube scored the 4-0 goal and powerplay goals by Nicole Lemire and Willoughby rounded out the scoring for the 6-0 win.
The Sharks ran into penalty trouble in the third period, as they took five minor penalties and Delaney Ross earned a game ejection for receiving her third stick infraction of the game.
The Bears were 3/8 on the powerplay while the Sharks were 0/4 despite generating some top notch scoring chances.
The loss wraps up the Sharks' regular season with a 0-26-2-0 record. The eighth place Sharks will face the first place Notre Dame Hounds in the first round of the playoffs. The Hounds finished the regular season undefeated with a 27-0-1-0 mark.
After an exhibition game against Swift Current next week, the Sharks will turn their attention to the Hounds, as they travel to Wilcox for game one March 1. March 2, the teams play game two in the Battlefords after a long bus trip. Game three is set for March 5 at Notre Dame.
