Young goalie tandem proving beneficial for Sharks

“I was a bit intimidated,” Burt said of training camp, after her 4-1 win on Sunday where she stopped 33 of 34 shots she faced. “It was my first year playing girls too, so the pace is different from everything else that I’ve played.”

“I think that this game is when I started to find my zone. The first few games and practices have been a bit off but I think I’m there now.”

Likewise, Weller feels she also has just recently started to find some confidence.

“In Weyburn, when I got that first win,” she said adding that’s the moment she began to feel more comfortable. “It was good.”

Burt, who is from nearby Maidstone, said she got into hockey because it’s what her friends were doing.

But she didn’t exactly have a particularly profound reason for wanting to try goaltending.

“I started late and I wasn’t good at skating…so I just picked goalie and here I am,” Burt joked. “It’s pretty fun so far.”

Weller, from Saskatoon, knew she wanted to be a goalie right away because of her father.

“My dad…was a goalie too, so I wanted to follow him,” Weller said.

Sharks head coach Gary Berggren was particularly impressed with his goaltenders play this past weekend, even though Weller let in six goals in Saturday’s 6-3 loss. Three of those were power play goals and it’s clear she played better than the numbers show.

Berggren thinks both goalies have been coming into their own because they are getting more used to traffic in front and now have the confidence to shut out all the havoc in their crease.

“Coming into the league, they weren’t really sure what to expect,” Berggren said. “All the teams we play, they crash the net hard and it’s important that you don’t get distracted from that and that you stay within yourself and play your game and I think they’re starting to do that.”

Off the ice, balancing high school with competitive hockey has its challenges for both girls, especially when there’s travel involved. Even for home games present an obstacle as Maidstone is roughly 80 km from Battleford Arena, while Saskatoon is 140.

But both girls agree multi-tasking school work with competitive hockey is a necessary evil.

“Driving back and forth, it’s hard,” Weller said. “But it’s just something you have to be able to deal with.”

“It just takes a lot of energy away from you,” Burt, who also spends time playing piano and violin, added. “But it’s something you have to learn to deal with if you want to play at a high level of hockey.”

Although Burt is just a rookie, she eventually wants to seek a hockey scholarship to attend an American university, and admitted she hasn’t thought much about Canadian schools.

“I definitely have been looking at universities and stuff and playing higher levels [of hockey],” Burt said. “Not Canada really…but I’ve got a long time.”

Weller hasn’t thought that far ahead, though the opportunity could certainly present itself if she keeps up her strong play of late.

And plus, both Weller and Burt still have multiple years of eligibility remaining to make their mark as Sharks.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.Kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11.

by Nathan Kanter

Young goalie tandem proving beneficial for Sharks

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