The St. Albert Slash are one win away from sweeping the Lloydminster Steelers in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League playoffs.
Last weekend in the Border City the Slash opened the best-of-five north division semifinal with a dominant 9-2 victory. In game two the Slash went a marathon six periods of action before closing it out in the seventh frame on Jessica Kampjes’ tally to win 5-4.
“We've shown that we can beat them two completely different ways,” said head coach Terry Sydor.
Game three is Friday at 8:45 p.m. at Mark Messier Arena.
In the north standings the Steelers (15-10-7) finished second, three points ahead of the Slash (13-11-8).
“We'll make sure we're sharp. They'll be strong. They're historically a very strong team,” Sydor said. “If we get chances we have to make sure we bury them.”
Goalie Jillian Diachuk gave the Slash fits during the regular season as the Steelers won the season series 2-1-1, allowing seven goals in four games. But after coughing up four goals on 17 shots in game one, the Steelers relieved her with Megan McCormick, who didn't fare much better as she allowed five goals on 23 shots.
“Our girls were prepared and motivated with lots of energy,” Sydor said. “We kept on rolling through their backup. It was good to see us capitalize on our chances and run them out of the rink.”
Tyler Lisitza was also busy in net as the Steelers directed 30 shots her way.
“They had some good chances and had more power play chances than we did. They moved the puck well but Tyler was solid,” Sydor said.
In game two the Slash started out well, outshooting the Steelers 11-1 at one point but the home team weathered the storm and ended up with a 3-0 lead heading into the second period, chasing Emily Mitchell from the St. Albert net in the process.
“The first period we had real good energy again but then we had breakdowns and they capitalized and then they scored with two women up. That put us in a hole,” Sydor said. “We talked between periods about getting the next one. As for the goalie change, it wasn't due to Emily's performance. I felt we needed a different look and the girls responded.
“Tyler made some incredible stops in overtime and the girls up front did awesome in an endurance test.”
Late in the game Steelers forward Danielle Brown jumped Slash captain Melissa Kueber and the two dropped the mitts and started a full-on battle with misconducts handed out to both sides. There was no word on what suspensions will result but it's expected both Brown and Kueber will miss Friday's game.
“It was unfortunate that they stooped to that level,” said Sydor.
He gave props to assistant coaches Dean Hengel and Doug Gizoski for their work behind the bench in the game two marathon.
“Dean was running the forwards, and with girls in the box and Kueber out of the game, you're kind of making up lines as you go and adjusting. To do that for four straight periods of sudden death was huge,” Sydor said. “Doug was handling the defence and at one time we had just one defender and we had to pull forwards back.
“I was just trying to let the guys do their jobs and keep the girls energized and focused.”
