By Nathan Kanter

AAA Sharks win 1 of 4 in weekend tournament

Sep 27, 2016 | 5:40 PM

The Battlefords female AAA Sharks went 1-3 over the weekend in a tournament in Central Plains, Manitoba, but head coach Gary Berggren said the Sharks outshot their opponents in every game.

“When we first started we were a bit tentative,” Berggren said. “But as the weekend went on the nerves went away and we actually were playing pretty good.

“The score wasn’t really indicative of the play. We definitely held our own in that regard. We just had trouble scoring.”

Each and every one of their games was tight, as their losses were 1-0, 3-0 and 3-2, while their lone victory was a 3-1 score over the Interlake Lightning.

Coach Berggren did notice that the players are still having trouble adjusting to the new systems being put in place.

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“Not everyone is catching on to it right away,” he said. “So I think that especially these first few games, I think we’re just going to keep getting better … as they figure out exactly what we’re trying to do. But it will definitely take some time.”

He said special teams are completely different than last year, their fore check is different, and their breakout has a couple of new options. It’s a lot to throw at the team all at once.

“Even the girls that played last year, there’s a lot of new stuff,” he said. “So it definitely is a change for all the girls.”

The biggest challenge in addition to adapting to a new system was the injury bug.

Two of the team’s five defencemen, Ryleigh White and Jessie Herner, are hurt. White was already hurt going into the tournament and Herner was hurt during.

There “was a bit scrambling for the defencemen because we did have a forward playing ‘D’ for a bit,” Berggren said. “But other than that it was a very good weekend.”

The Sharks will play an exhibition game this Thursday in Martensville against the Prince Albert Northern Bears.

After that, there are no more exhibition games scheduled.

The regular season kicks off for the Sharks on Saturday, October 15 in Melville against the Melville Prairie Fire, although the league does begin this weekend, with two games on Saturday, October 1.

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 

Editor’s Note: This story was edited at 8:48 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 29 to credit the photo to Betty Weller.