The female U18 Pembina Valley Hawks’ season was on the brink of coming to an end this week after they dropped the first two games of their best-of-five quarter-final against the Westman Wildcats.
The sixth-place Hawks though gave the third-place Wildcats all they could handle as they were both close games.
Game one Friday in Hartney saw the Hawks make a comeback only to come up one goal short in the end. Westman held a 5-0 lead after 40 minutes before Pembina Valley fired off five goals in the third period to tie it, but the Wildcats got the winner on a power play with 3:39 remaining.
Makayla Warnick, Leah Klassen, Mia Brass, Sophia Cox and Rylee Harms scored for the Hawks, who were outshot 33-26.
Game two followed a somewhat similar trend as Pembina Valley had fallen behind 4-1 early in the second but again came back to tie the game before Westman connected for the game-winning goal with 1:41 left.
Cox scored again for the Hawks along with Casey O’Brien, Ariel Rondeau, and Delaney Darby. Westman had a 37-29 edge in shots on goal.
Game three was scheduled for Tuesday in Hartney. Results were not available at press time.
If the Hawks win that night, the series will continue with game four Thursday in Morden and potentially game five Saturday in Harney.
