It was a statement weekend for the Swift Current Innovation Federal Credit Union Wildcats.
They opened the home portion of the regular season female U18 AAA schedule against the perennial contenders from Saskatoon.
It was a Stars teams with some new faces, but one that only lost twice in regulation all of last season. Swift Current not only beat them 2-1 on Saturday but played right with them in a tightly contested 3-1 loss on Sunday.
"To show the rest of the league that we're legit," said Wildcats veteran Alexa Kobley. "Don't take us lightly because we're better than everyone is saying we are."
Swift Current's coach felt Saturday's effort was one of the best in recent seasons and liked their weekend overall.
"That's a really good hockey team," said Wildcats head coach Terry Pavely on Country 94.1's Local Sports Live. "(Saskatoon has) some really dynamic players. They come out in waves, and I think it was really important for our group to see that we're a good hockey team. We can play with those teams and it's gonna be hard.
"I thought for the most part we played 60 minutes both games and that's why they're close. That's going to be kind of how our league is this year. You got to be ready to play every game. Now the message for us is that that was a fast two hockey games. We got to be able to play at that pace when we're not playing Saskatoon."
The Wildcats got down in the first period of Sunday's game on a Rachel Pavlove power play goal. The Stars seemed to build momentum around their power play in what was a generally close period. It forced some Wildcats adjustments.
"We really talked about possessing the puck," Pavely noted. "I think you would have seen our D did a much better job in the neutral zone of not just firing a puck back into a pile... You've gotta possess the puck, so it wasn't so scrambly. I thought our D stayed up a lot better and made it tougher for them to enter the zone."
Swift Current's lone goal on Sunday game was late in their second period power play when Dior Stringer wrapped in her first of the season. Rookie Stevie Christiaens made a nice play off a lost draw to force a scramble around the net that Stringer took advantage of for a tie game.
"That's one of the things that good teams do," Pavely said. "They don't worry about whether you're gonna lose face off, so you have to read and react and get yourself to a spot. That's what we did. You never know someone fans on a puck, they bobble the puck, and you get an opportunity. I liked our power play. We only had one chance, and I thought it was pretty effective."
Saskatoon pulled ahead in the third on an impressive individual effort from Kolbee Ashe. Open ice was hard to come by the rest of the game.
"We talk about the guts of the game a lot of time is the first couple minutes of a period, the last couple minutes of a period, they're pretty big momentum shifts. They got that goal right off the hop and mentally it kind of sometimes hurts you because you feel like now you got to chase the game a little bit. I thought we did start to chase a little bit that it looked like we were a little more tired. It is a good lesson the importance of conditioning when you need to make a push late in the third period that's where conditioning is gonna really make the difference."
The Wildcats now sit at 2-2 in league standings as they prepare for the 2024 U18 Prep Canadian Crown showcase tournament in Devon, Alberta this weekend.