The Springside Parkland Lions Bantam Girls hockey team kicked off their season with back-to-back wins.
The Lions, part of the nine team Â鶹´«Ã½AV Saskatchewan Female Hockey League, opened their season with a 6-2 win over the Regina Cougars. Jordan Holinaty tallied twice for the Lions, while Tanis Lubenicki, Brooke Hausermann, Regan Nichol, and Janna Keisig all chipped in markers. Alli Thomsen picked up three assists, while Sara McNamara backstopped the Lions to the win.
"This season, we have seven returning players, and added another seven players to the team," stated coach Dean Shyiak. "We have girls from Springisde, Yorkton, Foam Lake, Kamsack, and Churchbridge, so this first game was a chance for the girls to put together the things we've been working on in practice."
"The first game is always a bit of a scramble when you have players who haven't played together before," added coach Jason Gordon. "In practice, we stressed coming out with a hard-working, up-tempo, and aggressive approach to the game. We told our girls that we know there will be mistakes because we haven't had time to review all systems or build chemistry yet, but that we want to come out and establish our team identity right away."
In their second regular-season game, the Lions donned pink jerseys to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.
"This is something we did last year, and the girls though it was a good opportunity to show our support for those affected by cancer," said assistant coach Chad Holinaty.
The Lions were led by assistant captain Regan Nichol, who picked up a hat trick, in a 7-3 win against the Regina Lions.
"Regan was great tonight," said Shyiak. "She really led by example, and it was great to see her hard work get rewarded with three goals."
Taylor Nagy picked up the win in net for the Lions, while Brooke Hausermann tallied twice, with Olivia Gordon and Jordan Holinaty adding singles.
"I thought our depth was the key difference tonight," said Holinaty. "We had points from all three lines, and did a pretty good job of keeping possession in the offensive zone. It was a one goal game going into the third, so it was good to see the girls finish the game well with four goals in the third to pick up the win."
