What an atmosphere for a fifth win in a row.

The Diamond Energy Female Midget AAA Wildcats earned a 7-3 victory over the Battlefords Sharks Saturday afternoon at the Gull Lake and Community Rec Complex, as part of Hockey Day in Saskatchewan.

“These are fun to get an opportunity to play in an atmosphere like this, a lot of activity in the rink all day long,” said Wildcats head coach Terry Pavely. “It’s fun for everybody – fun for the coaches, fans, players. We just feel privileged to get the opportunity. Gull Lake did such a fabulous job of hosting, there’s nowhere else we’d rather play today but here and be part of this day. We get the W, so that’s even better. All-in-all, a successful day.”

Back to the game though, and in front of their largest crowd all season, the Wildcats jumped on the board early and often.

Carissa Hogan opened scoring 2:42 into the game on an unassisted blast. Then, the Wildcats moved ahead five-and-a-half minutes later as Brooklyn Rublee chipped one past the Sharks keeper, with assists from Taylor Lind and Ryleigh White on the play.

A physical game saw Swift Current get into penalty trouble in the first – however, a five-minute major, including two full minutes of 5-on-3 for the Sharks were killed off successfully.

“Our kids don’t realize that even though we killed them off, it’s a momentum shift,” Pavely explained. “They get the puck in our end, they play for an extended period of time in our end, and it makes it a little bit difficult on our penalty-killers, because we’re gassing them - then it’s hard to keep the momentum going.”

That shift showed up in the second period, as the Sharks clawed their way back to tie the game, though only for a moment.

Battlefords scored just over four minutes into the second frame, then tied it up with just over four minutes remaining on a Wildcats penalty.

That tie lasted just 39 seconds as, on the power play, Kate Wagner blasted one left post and in from the point on an assist from Rublee to regain the lead.

Again in the second period, the Wildcats killed off another 5-on-3, this time lasting 1:46.

“We’ve got to really figure out when we’ve got a team down like we did today, we can’t give them any opportunity to get back in it,” said Pavely, who did note that his team rebounded well in the final frame.

“Overall, the third period we were really happy with our effort, we’ve just got to make sure that, moving forward, it’s a repetitive theme that we play 60 minutes. When we’re good, we’re pretty darn good – we’ve just got to make sure we get that consistency.”

The Wildcats added a trio of unanswered goals to open the final frame and pull away.

Ashlee Wolfe scored against her former team at the 18:42 mark, taking feeds from Crystal Wale and fellow former Shark, Layne Hryhoriw.

Then, Lind got on the board five minutes later, and was set up by Madison Garrett and Sara Kendall.

Hogan then scored her second of the game, finding the back of the net just over a minutes later on the power play. Lind and Kendall combined for the helpers on the play.

The Sharks did manage to respond a minute later on a power play point of their own but, down 6-3, it was a bit of a case of ‘too little, too late’ for Battlefords.

The game’s final goal came with four minutes remaining, as Lind matched Hogan’s two-goal game, with her second, and fourth point overall. Kendall assisted on the play for a three-point afternoon. 

The physical contest ended with Swift Current going 2-for-6 on the man-advantage, to Battlefords’ mark of 1-for-7. The Wildcats also edged the Sharks in the shot department 43-37.

“They had a little bit of a bone to pick with us – the last time we played them was a 10-1 game, and they didn’t want to get beat bad again,” said Pavely of their Sharks opponent. “I give them a lot of credit, they really came to compete. They were tough in front of their net.”

“We stuck around there a little bit and we didn’t need to,” he admitted. “We had a couple of those penalties where we’re already short-handed, and we take a roughing penalty, and now it’s a 5-on-3. We want our girls to be tough – we want to be in the tough areas, but you’ve also got to know what time you can do it.”

Amaya Giraudier recorded the 34-save win, her fifth straight between the pipes for the Wildcats.

Though failing to find the stat sheet in the win, it was still a special afternoon for forward Baylee Kirwan who, hailing from Gull Lake, was able to play back on a familiar ice surface again as part of Hockey Day in Saskatchewan.

“It felt good – I know there’s a lot of people watching, and it would have been kind of embarrassing to lose, so it felt to get a 7-3 win,” she said.

Kirwad admitted she may have gripped her stick tightly at times in front of a packed home rink, though the experience was essentially exactly how she had wanted it to play out otherwise.

“It was kind of stressful, because I just wanted to put one in, and it wouldn’t go in for me, but it’s whatever.”

Heading into the rematch in the friendly, and comfortably warmer confines of Fairview West on Sunday, the speedy Kirwan said they need to both sharpen up, and stay sharp on the special teams.

“Our powerplay at times was a little iffy. We’ve got to obviously improve that. But, our PK was pretty good today, and hopefully we can keep that up tomorrow.”

The surging Wildcats (11-9-0-1) and Sharks (6-11-4-3) face off at 2:15 p.m. from Fairview West.