U18 A Mavs Manage Tie With Visiting Colts

A three week Christmas break didn’t add any lustre to the Moose Jaw Carpet One U18 A Mavericks as a noticeably rusty Mavs managed a 4 - 4 tie with the visiting Swift Current Colts on Sunday evening.

The Mavs would take a two goal lead into the bottom quarter of the third period only to have the Colts score two goals to tie the game.

“I’m a little disappointed. We came away with one point but that should have been two points easy,” said Mavericks head coach Jeff Wilson.

“We dominated for a good portion of the game. I told the girls if you take your foot off of the gas for one shift sometimes and boom the pucks in the back of the net,” he said.

“Maybe it’s something we didn’t deserve but it can bite you.”

The Mavericks opened the scoring at 17:31 of the first period when Miley Kleckner scored her first of two goals assisted by Tylar Howe.

The Mavericks to a two goal lead at 16:54 when Howe scored assisted by Jadee Costley.

The Colts got their first goal at 13:17 scored by Hayley Kirwan assisted by Kinley Funk.

The second period saw the Mavericks retake a two goal lead when Jayden Babich scored an unassisted marker at 15:25.

The third period saw a bevy of goals scored. Unfortunately for the hometown Mavericks most of the goals were by the Colts.

The Colts were first to strike in the period at 16:50 on a goal by Kirwan assisted by Funk and Sydni Lindquist.

The Mavericks took what appeared to be an insurmountable two goal lead at 11:21 when Howe scored assisted by Babich.

The Colts however took advantage of a lapse to force the play through the middle resulting in an Ava Coller goal at 5:26. Assist went to Kirwan.

The comeback for the Colts happened at 3:02 when Sydney Longmore scored assisted by Taya Shotter.

The game was a showdown of two styles of play.

Swift Current’s style is to force the play and then make the pass up the middle headed for the goal.

“We had a pretty good handle on that. They couldn’t make the pass and we were prepared for that they didn’t make the pass,“ Wilson said.

Moose Jaw’s style is one of dumping the puck into the zone and then battling along the boards to come up with the puck and centering pass.

“We’re a good grinding team. We like to grind. Get it in deep and then chase the puck and get it out front for some chances,” he said.

“A good forecheck and aggressiveness pays off in this league all of the time.”

Three weeks off the ice has impacted the team.

“There’s definitely some rust there. But I think it’s showing for both teams. So we won’t take that into account (how the game ended).”

The team is prepping for the Mavericks’ hometown tournament the last weekend of January. The tournament is a matter of pride for the team Wilson said.

“Moose Jaw teams are always ready for their hometown tournament.”

Despite it still early in the season - when crowds are smaller - there was a large turnout for the game.

“We always have a good turnout so we’re very happy with it,” he said.

Player wise the team was missing two players due to Christmas holidays.

The team was missing two players for the game, but it was not much of affect for them as they carry a 20 player roster.

There were eight players on defence, and one of the defensive players had to be moved up as a forward as they were missing one player to fill a line.

Other than prepping for the annual tournament the Mavericks are going to be working out in practice for the regular league season.

Wilson said the real measure of the team’s ability will be shown this Thursday when they travel to Milestone to take on the undefeated Flyers.

The Flyers have moved down in the standings points-wise due to not playing for weeks and have several games in hand.

“The test will be Thursday night. We play Thursday night down in Milestone. ..those are the games we like it really shows what your team is made up of when you play teams like Milestone or Balcarres .”

The Mavericks play who arguably the two best teams in the division - Milestone and Balcarres - this coming Thursday and Friday.

The team’s next home game is - Friday January 9th at 8 pm versus the Balcarres Barracudas at the Kinsmen Arena.

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