It wasn鈥檛 the way the Parkland Lions wanted to end their season, losing in back-to-back games to the Regina Ravens 4-1 on Wednesday night in Game One and 7-1 Sunday afternoon in Game Two to finish runners up in the SSFHL Midget 鈥楢A鈥� division playoffs.
But with all things considered, the second place finish in both the regular season and postseason is still seen as quite the accomplishment for the young Lions squad in their first Midget 鈥楢A鈥� season. 鈥淥verall I would say it was a good year for us,鈥� said Parkland Lions head coach Chad Holinaty. 鈥淚t was a bit of an unknown for a lot of our girls, because although they鈥檝e played and had a lot of success in Bantam 鈥楢鈥�, Midget 鈥楢A鈥� is a different level.
鈥淏eing second in the league in our first year in Midget 鈥楢A鈥� was a positive, and making it to the finals was certainly what we wanted to do and we did it. It maybe wasn鈥檛 the result that we wanted, but it was where we wanted to be at the end of the year.鈥�
Holinaty鈥檚 ladies opened the season with a hard fought 3-2 win over the Notre Dame Hounds before being rudely welcomed to the league by the Ravens, who handed them a 9-2 defeat.
The Lions then took three of four points off of Swift Current with a 2-1 win and a 2-2 tie before picking up perhaps their biggest victory of the regular season, a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Ravens, which, incidentally, proved to be the only blemish on an otherwise perfect season for the Regina squad. 鈥淭hat game was definitely one of the highlights of our season for sure,鈥� mentioned Holinaty. 鈥淭hat was a game that we got outshot badly but just found a way to win. We went down 2-0 early and it looked like it was going to be one of those games where we weren鈥檛 sure if we鈥檇 be able to get back into it. To the girls鈥� credit they were resilient and didn鈥檛 let the lows get too low and found a way to battle back.
鈥淲e did a little bit of rope-a-dope in that game, they probably controlled the majority of play and outshot us badly, but we just found a way to win. We were hoping to be able to find a way in these finals against them too, but unfortunately we came up a bit short.鈥�
Holinaty said that throughout the entire season it was the Lions鈥� defence and goaltending 鈥� not their offence 鈥� that saw them through games. 鈥淲e certainly felt that we had strength on defence and felt that our best way to compete would be to be sound defensively, and we thought that our biggest challenge would be scoring and that was our case, really, all season long,鈥� stated the Lions鈥� head coach. 鈥淲e were able to keep most games fairly tight with a strong defence and a solid goalie, but needed to find some better depth and ability to put the puck in the net.鈥�
The head coach said that he believes the offence will come eventually, and possibly as early as next season, once the younger Lions (the team was comprised predominately of first year midget players) grow and mature.
For now, the Lions will enjoy the fact that they were one of only two teams still playing at this time of the year. They鈥檒l also say goodbye to three graduating players 鈥� Paige Shyiak, Carli Gray and Kyra Sorenson 鈥� who all wrapped up their minor hockey careers Sunday evening.
