The month of December is going to be a busy one for the city's triple-A midget female hockey team.
With two major tournaments looming this month on the Northern Capitals' schedule, they took care of some immediate business at home over the weekend.
The Capitals swept the visiting Kootenay Wild in a three-game B.C. Hockey Female Midget AAA League series.
The Caps started it with a 5-1 win Friday at Kin 1, edged the Wild 2-1 Saturday at the same rink, then blanked their Nelson-based opponents 4-0 Sunday morning at CN Centre. Their perfect weekend moved the Capitals into a first-place tie with the Greater Vancouver Comets. Each has 13-3-2 records.
"They gave us a pretty good game in Game 2 and our finish was off but we did a whole lot better (Sunday) and it was a good win," said Capitals head coach Mario Desjardins.
"I thought we did well in the offensive zone and neutral zone but we struggled coming out of our own end. We didn't have a lot of defensive-zone time but still have some work to do coming out of our own zone. We just need to spend more time in practice doing it."
Kelsey Roberts stood tall in the Capitals' nets Friday and Sunday, allowing just one goal in two games. Taylor Beck staked the Caps to an early lead at even strength Sunday and the Capitals got their next three on the power play. Victoria Byer, Marissa Nichol and Hunter Mosher all scored. Shots were 38-15 in favour of the Capitals.
'We needed to get our power play going," said Desjardins. "We were struggling the first two games but it was on (Sunday), that's for sure."
Four of the Capitals' five goals Friday came in the first period. Sage Desjardins led the way with two goals. Singles went to Byer, Nichol and Mosher. Tiana Ewasiuk found the target for Kootenay.
Rookie goalie Tanya William, 16, didn't get as much offensive support from her teammates Saturday and had to be sharp in the late stages to preserve the one-goal victory. Katie Young opened the scoring and rookie Myah Bowal collected the game-winner in the second period before Kelsey Patterson cut the lead seven minutes before the second intermission.
The Capitals outshot the Wild in that one, 36-15.
The Capitals hit the highway today, heading to Wilcox, Sask., where they face the Shaftsbury Titans of Winnipeg in their opening game Thursday at the Notre Dame Hounds midget female tournament. Last year, when they were known as the Northern Cougars, the Prince George team finished fourth out of 16 teams at Notre Dame.
The Capitals are also scheduled to play Calgary Edge Academy and host Notre Dame on Friday.
They resume their league schedule
Dec. 18-20 with three games against the Comets in Coquitlam, then head to Calgary to play in the Mac's midget tournament, starting Dec. 26.
