For the third straight day, the Red Deer Chiefs and Stoney Creek Sabres came away victorious at the Esso Cup in Dieppe, New Brunswick.
The two teams continued to fight it out for top spot in the Esso Cup round robin ahead of their head-to-head match up on Thursday.
Ivy Johnston factored into all four goals scored by the Stoney Creek Sabres as she scored a hat trick and added an assist in a 4-2 win over the Moncton Rockets.
Johnston's assist came on a marker by Olivia De Caria, who had a three point night of her own.
“I just tell myself on the bench that if you do the little things, the big things will come," Johnston said following the win. "If you don’t think about the end goal like scoring or winning and just think one shot or one pass at a time, it will work out for you.”
Moncton's goals came from Anabelle Daniel and Thea MacFayden.
In a contest between the two western teams in the tournament, Brylee Hull who was paramount in Red Deer's run to the Esso Cup put up another stellar performance turning aside all 29 shots she faced in the 4-0 shutout.
Jensyn Stephenson scored a pair for the Chiefs, while Talia Switzer and Olivia Stewart had the others.
“All weekend we have been able to put in a full team effort, different girls scoring and everyone giving us an opportunity to win," said Switzer. "Our defence keep us physical in the defensive zone, limiting our opponent’s chances and our forwards are able to create lots of chances, so we’re just hoping to keep it going.”
As de Québec looked to be in control of this game opening the scoring on a Lya Michaud marker late in the opening period, followed by a goal from Camille Bihannic in the first half of the second to put Québec ahead 2-0.
The Northern Selects however, in a span of only 4:48 in the second period turned the entire game around. Carrie Doiron scored twice, and Lexi MacIntyre also tallied in that span to flip the scipt and give the Nova Scotia representatives a 3-2 lead.
Amy Field made 24 saves in the win, including helping the Selects kill off three third period penalties to earn the win. It was an important first victory for the Selects in the tournament after the struggled to find the win column on the opening two days.
“You don’t want to go down 0-3 in the tournament, that’s a tough hole to be in," said Northern head coach Craig Clarke. "I thought we played well other than the first 10 minutes against Moncton and I thought we had some good moments against Stoney Creek, but it just wasn’t coming together. We’re a young team and we’ve made some mistakes, but it feels like we’re maturing through that. I thought when we scored our first goal it gave us a spark, and another spark with the power-play goal. Hats off to the girls winning the faceoff with eight seconds left; they showed a lot of composure, stayed focused and scored again with one second left.