Two members of the Swift Current Innovation Federal Credit Union Wildcats are off to represent Saskatchewan starting Sunday at the Hockey Canada U18 Women's National Championship.
Defenceman Rayna Hennie and right winger Raela Packet will play for Team Saskatchewan at the event in New Brunswick.
"The whole thing is the experience," said Wildcats Head Coach Terry Pavely. "You hope that they go there, play against a little bit of, you know elevated competition because it's all the best players from all the provinces, and there are things that they can bring back to make us better. It allows us to give other kids opportunities that maybe they don't get right now. Those are so important because at some point you get injuries, maybe your kid kicked out for checking behind all of a sudden. Allows a kid to maybe be more successful if they're put in that situation again."
Some teams don't schedule games during nationals, but the Wildcats are hosting the Prince Albert Raiders twice this weekend and welcome Notre Dame for another game next Wednesday.
"I like the fact that we're one of the teams that does play usually every year during the national championship for girls," Pavely said. "Embrace the moment. Then take on that challenge so you know we expect there to be tight games and you know the expectation is that we're going to find a way to get points this weekend."
The Wildcats split both their league games against Prince Albert this season and lost to the Bears in the championship game at the U18 Canadian Crown tournament in Alberta.
"Well coached team," Pavely noted. "They play their structure very good. They like to use the middle of the ice to break out. So that's one thing we talked about (the) F3 has to be really good. They move the puck well through the neutral zone, so our neutral zone structure is important."
Swift Current is coming off a 2-1 win over Notre Dame on Wednesday and are in second place in a very tightly packed female U18 AAA league.
"I think that's kind of going to be the story of our league this year is there's a lot of parity in our league this year and you got to be ready to play every night," Pavely said. "That's the mindset we have is that every night we step on the ice and it's going to be tight. Hopefully for us again it's a learning process that we learn how to play in those games. We learn how maybe to come back when you're down, how to hold the lead when you've got one. I just think that mental preparation to me no matter who you're playing, you have to be mentally prepared to play 60 minutes and withstand he ups and downs."
The Wildcats host the Bears Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at S3 Arenas. They'll be home to Notre Dame again on Wednesday, and you can hear that game on Country 94.1 FM with Local Sports Live.