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Sharks wrap up weekend series with huge win

Nov 27, 2016 | 5:23 PM

The Battlefords AAA Sharks responded well after Saturday’s 6-3 loss to Swift Current, defeating them on Sunday 4-1 at Battleford Arena.

With the win, the Sharks are now 3-7-0-1 this season, but more importantly they have won three of their last four.

“It was excellent,” head coach Gary Berggren said after the win. “[In] yesterday’s loss… we came out flat and we just couldn’t recover. Today, we challenged them to come out hard right off the bat and we did and we had a really good game.

“I think we’ve just been building and building and we’re right where we want to be in the season.”

Goaltender Chloe Burt was the star on Sunday, stopping 33 of 34 shots for her second win of the season.

But Burt wasn’t the only rookie with a big performance, as Layne Hryhoriw had two goals and Madison Sansom had a goal and an assist. Veteran Keara Amson had the other goal on Sunday.

“This game is when I started to find my zone,” Burt said. “The first few games and practices I’ve been a bit off but I think I’m there now.”

Saturday’s loss was due to a slow start, as the Sharks gave up three goals to Swift Current in the first 12 minutes. They battled back well to make it a 4-3 game early in the third, but the Wildcats would add two more to put it out of reach.

Goal scorers in the loss were Ali Aitken, Amson, and Hryhoriw.

The Sharks were shorthanded nine times on Saturday – and gave up three power play markers – but they were also shorthanded 10 times on Sunday, yet managed to win.

Berggren said the number of penalties his team took this weekend isn’t a concern at all.

“We actually dont worry about the penalties at all,” he said. “When they come, we kill them. We want to make sure that we’re playing aggresive and that we don’t shy away from that stuff because it’s more important to be aggressive and on the puck all the time than it is not to take penalties.”

Goal scoring across the board is also up.

At first it was from veterans like Jordan Kulbida and Keara Amson, but recently Sansom and Hryhoriw have caught fire. Sansom has three goals in her last four games and Hryhoriw had three goals in the two weekend games alone.

The Sharks have scored 18 goals in their last four games, after hitting the back of the net just 11 times in their first seven games.

Berggren said a lot of that has to do with confidence.

“The younger players are starting to understand what it takes to score goals in this league,” he said. “We’re going to the net harder and we’re putting more pucks to the net and now they’re starting to go in.”

The Sharks have a difficult month of December, as they will host the Prince Albert Northern Bears next weekend for a double-header and then they travel to Saskatoon to take on the 9-1-0-1 Stars on Dec. 17 and 18.

But it’s one team at a time, and first on the agenda is a P.A. team that beat the Sharks on Oct. 19 5-2.

“They’re small but they’re fast,” Berggren said. “Big defence but small forwards that can really move and we just need to keep pace with them and play physical against them, that’s the biggest thing.”