Swift Current's female U18 AAA hockey club is preparing for their home opener after a split of games in Prince Albert on the weekend.
The Innovation Federal Credit Union Wildcats fell 3-1 to the Bears on Saturday before responding with a 3-2 victory Sunday afternoon.
"Number one was definitely our D zone," said Wildcats head coach Terry Pavely of their improvement between games. "You know most of their goals (on Saturday), probably all three of them resulted in major breakdowns in our D zone where we got caught watching the puck. That was probably the biggest improvement in not getting puck focused. (We) took care of the net front in both ends of the ice."
The Wildcats have been happy with the execution of their power play throughout the young season so far including a key strike on Sunday.
"Our power play was very good all weekend," Pavely said. "We moved the puck very well and you know we were rewarded on Sunday."
The win was a special one for Wildcats goaltender Ashley Vezeau. As a rookie from Prince Albert, she got her first U18 AAA victory with the Wildcats against her hometown team.
"Probably there's a little bit of nerves I would imagine right off the get go," Pavely said. "But she settled in nicely... did her job in net and made the saves we needed. Probably a really good moment to get that win at home."
Defencemen Reece Hawkins and Charlize Hilmer opened and closed the scoring for the Wildcats on Sunday. Alexa Kobley also led the team with two assists over the weekend as Swift Current managed some offence from their blue line.
"We want to make sure we can get some offence by committee up and down our lineup," Pavely said. "A lot of the goals you score from the point are a result of good net presence. Could be from moving a park from low to high and spreading out their defensive coverage. We're really happy that our D were able to contribute a little bit, and I think the more they can contribute makes you a little bit tougher to defend."
The Wildcats play their first regular season home games this weekend against a very good Saskatoon Stars team.
"They'll be a good team and a real good test," Pavely noted. "They've got a couple high end offensive players. We're just going to have to make sure that this week as we practice, we're going to continue to focus on D zone and making sure we do a good job of tying up the slot, not getting puck focused, but also not getting drawn all the way out to the boards."
Saturday's game is set for 7:15pm at the S3 Arenas. You can hear Sunday's game with our Local Sports Live broadcast on Country 94.1 FM.