The Swift Current Innovation Federal Credit Union Wildcats are feeling good after their home tournament.
The female U18 AAA hockey club went 2-1 at the event, with their only loss a tight 2-1 defeat against a college program from Medicine Hat.
"We were really happy with it," said Wildcats Head Coach Terry Pavely. "Considering we had eight kids out of our lineup, so we had seven kids from our U18 AA and U15 AA programs play with us. It bodes very well that we have kids in the area that can step in and play.
"When you look at a record of 2-1, we were really happy. I thought we could have easily went 3-0. Our second game against Medicine College, we got off to a slow start and I thought we were pretty good in the second and third period."
Pavely was impressed how well they played without getting into too much of their system work.
"With our team that we didn't give much structure, our special teams were very good," he noted. "We think we had three power play goals on the weekend. We gave up only one power play goal against. The kids did a good job of executing, just kind of using their hockey instinct and hockey IQ. A good overall weekend to evaluate our players, our APs, and just allow people to get their legs under them a little bit."
Swift Current beat Pilot Mound 6-0 on Friday, fell 2-1 to Medicine Hat College on Saturday, and beat Regina 2-1 on Sunday.
Raela Packet scored in all three games for the Wildcats.
"She's a real good hockey player," Pavely said. "She's creative. She works hard. She's got a real good shot. We saw it at the end of last year on the power play coming off the flank. She scored some really big goals for us. Heading in this year, she's got some opportunities to walk into the top of the circles, and she can really snap that puck."
He was especially pleased with their effort given they had eight players suiting up for the two Saskatchewan U16 teams that also participated over the weekend.
Pavely is looking forward to seeing how their complete roster plays.
"We really like our depth on our team," he noted. "I think that we're going to have the opportunity this year to maybe get a little more scoring throughout our lineup. Other teams playing against us might not be able to focus on one line because we'll be able to have skilled kids, both veterans and rookies, throughout our lineup. That's always hard to defend when every line can contribute offensively."
The Wildcats don't play again until September 27th.