The Weyburn Southern Range Gold Wings hosted the Regina Rebels at Crescent Point Place on Nov. 19.
The game was back and forth all night and the Gold Wings were slow to come out of the gates, but eventually they managed to find their feet and pulled off a 4-2 win.
Five minutes into the first period, Gold Wings’ forward Jensen Hammer went to the penalty box for interference. A minute into the penalty, the Rebels set up in the Gold Wings’ zone. Rebels forward Chelsea Perepeluk got the puck to her defenseman on the blue line, Alyssa Hein, who then got the puck in front of the net for Rebels’ forward Lilla Carpenter-Boesch, beating Gold Wings’ netminder Chantal Burke.
Five minutes into the second period the Gold Wings tied the game up at 1-1. They broke out of their zone and after two quick passes in the neutral zone from Madison Solie and Madison Colbow, Cassidy Pirlot got a breakaway and rifled a puck past the glove of Rebels’ goaltender Tatum Shand, tieing the game 1-1.
Six and a half minutes into the second period, Rebels’ defencemen Alyssa Hein went to the box for body checking. A minute into the power play, the Gold Wings were in the Rebels’ zone. A Rebels’ defenseman got a hold of the puck and attempted to rifle it to the other end of the ice. Unfortunately, the puck deflected off of the helmet of a Gold Wings’ defenceman, sailed twenty feet into the air and collided with a light. It shattered the bulb and glass rained onto the ice. A five minute delay was needed to remove the glass before play resumed. Losing momentum, the Gold Wings were unable to score on the power play.
With seven and a half minutes left in the second period, the Gold Wings’ Madison Solie was called for tripping, giving the Rebels’ another power play opportunity. While on the power play, rebels Vayda Kotyk netted the Rebels’ second goal of the game, with the assists coming from Chelsea Perepeluk and Santana Gravelle.
Down 2-1 at the end of the second period, the Gold Wings started the third period strong. At 45 seconds in, they tied the game up, with Macy Liebreich scoring the goal, assisted by Jensen Hammer and Bailee Bourassa.
Little over a minute later, Cassidy Pirlot buried her second of the night, assisted once again by Madison Solie and bumping the Gold Wings ahead of the Rebels 3-2.
The Gold Wings struck the final blow to the Rebels with six minutes left in the game. Elise Endicott scored her first goal of the game to put the Gold Wings up 4-2. Madison Solie got her third assist of the night, and Cassidy Pirlot her first.
The Gold Wings outshot the Rebels 31-28. After the win, the Gold Wings stand at 8-6-1-0.
Cassidy Pirlot was selected as the Gold Wings’ star of the game. Despite scoring two goals and one assist, she was very humble during a post-game interview.
“It feels good to be recognized but I was just in the right place at the right time. Had my other teammates been where I was at those moments I’m sure they would have scored too,” said Pirlot.
She added that the Gold Wings started the game slow but gained momentum in the third period.
After the game, Gold Wings’ assistant coach Kevin Ripplinger admitted that his team did not bring forth their best effort that night, but he was pleased with the win nonetheless.
“The last 20 minutes of the game were more our style of play,” said Ripplinger. “We are a well skating team but we didn’t skate for two periods; when our feet aren’t moving we just aren’t very good. Once we get pucks on net we can make things happen, but if we don’t skate then we can’t get pucks to the net and it’s harder to score goals.”
Ripplinger added that the Gold Wings came out hard in the third period and owned the ice.
After Wednesday’s game the Gold Wings are on a four-game win streak, totalling 17 goals for and only seven goals against.
“We’re on a bit of a streak right now. We’re scoring a lot of goals, the girls are playing some really good hockey and I’m looking forward to our next 13 games. We’re over halfway done the season, and we have some wins to put up if we want to remain in the top four of the league because there is a lot of parity between teams this year. However, we’re where we want to be and the girls know that they have to work hard for every win,” finished Ripplinger.
The Gold Wings played at Crescent Point Place last night against the Melville Fox FM Prairie Fire (more on that game in next week’s issue) and will not play at home again until 2015. The Gold Wings will open the new year against the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 10, at Crescent Point Place. The puck will drop at 7:30 p.m.
