wildcats

The Diamond Energy Female Midget Wildcats had a good showing at a tournament in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba this weekend, where they recorded two wins, a loss and a tie against some of the top teams in the Keystone province.

"It's a pretty good measuring stick to where we think we stand in Western Canada," said Wildcats coach Terry Pavely. "On Sunday, we played the Yellowhead Chiefs, who are arguably the top team in Manitoba, and snuck out a 1-0 win. The real encouraging thing for us was we're missing three veterans this weekend, who were a real big part of our lineup, and for us to compete really well missing those three kids was a really good sign."

The Wildcats open the regular season in Melville on Saturday, and Pavely says heading into the league games, their offensive zone play has been one of their strengths.

"We want to attack the net, and we want to make plays," he said. "When we get to the offensive zone, we want to give them a little more rope and say, 'try some things, try to beat people and try to create scoring chances.' We don't want to be a team that just dumps the puck in and tries to get it, we want to try to create scoring opportunities, because obviously the more opportunities we create, the more goals we're going to score."

On the other side of the coin, Pavely says they would like to work on defensive zone play and special teams ahead of the regular season, as well as just staying on the move while on the ice.

"We found in our nine exhibition games, that when we're moving our feet with and without the puck, we seem to play better," he said. "Sometimes, we get puck watching a bit, and when we do that, we seem to get hemmed in our end a little bit."

After two games in Melville this weekend, the Wildcats will take a trip to Calgary and Banff for exhibition games on the Thanksgiving weekend, before their home opener against Melville on October 18th.