AAA Sharks seeing early season success on the ice and off

“We’ve had contributions from everybody – not just on the scoresheet – but both Cypress [Classen] and Mackenzie [Seth] have come up huge for us in net and they’ve kept us in games. Once we get rolling our defense has kind of held the fort and got the pucks to our forwards, and we’ve provided the players a lot of freedom to be creative and show off their skill sets. We’ve continued to roll four lines too, which I think has been a big part of it.”

Perhaps best encapsulating the team’s spirit this season was their most recent win, Sunday against the Weyburn Gold Wings. The victory saw the Sharks come back from a 2-1 deficit in the third period, to score two in the final eight minutes to win the game in regulation.

“That was a big one for us,” Horbach said, reflecting back. “I think with each game we’ve faced different situations and Sunday against Weyburn was no different.

“I think collectively as a group we maybe didn’t bring our best for the first couple of periods, but Mackenzie Seth gave us a chance and kept us in the game, and the girls started to realize that ‘hey, we’ve got the skill set to make something happen.’ They showed an incredible amount of resiliency, we just kept rolling the lines, and one shift after another we kept building and were able to secure the win.”

The victory comes just ahead of what could be the Sharks’ best test yet of the young season, coming up this weekend in the form of a back-to-back with the second-place Saskatoon Stars (2-0-0) at Battleford Arena, this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 21 and 22.

The weekend will also be another big one for the Sharks off the ice, where the team has also been very active in the community.

Coming off a strong turnout for their tailgate barbecue last weekend, which saw the team raise close to $900 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Battlefords, the Sharks will be holding their Pink in the Rink festivities complete with a silent auction during their games this weekend, with a number of primarily women-owned businesses in the Battlefords area having donated items to be auctioned off with all proceeds going towards breast cancer research.

Sharks manager, Trenna Derdall said the idea to do something special for breast cancer awareness this month came from the players.

“Our players made the decision at the beginning of October to recognize breast cancer awareness month so they have been wearing pink laces and will throughout the month of October, and [the organization] had a Pink in the Rink event last year and we wanted to continue that this year,” Derdall said.

The silent auction items will be available for bid on both game days this weekend, until the third period of Sunday afternoon’s contest. Saturday’s game will be a 5 p.m. start with Sunday a 1:30 p.m. puck drop, both at Battleford Arena.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1

by Martin Martinson

AAA Sharks seeing early season success on the ice and off

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