Saints’ crusade cut short in 4-3 loss to Northern

[attach]1238[/attach]They might have only had seven skaters, but for Richview Saints they were magnificent.

Head coach Scott Johnstone commended his group of seven for their good play even if they lost 4-3 to Northern Red Knights in girls Tier 1 hockey.

“We had a pretty good performance,” he said. “A couple of players probably played their best games of the year.”

At the end of the first period Johnstone was heard telling his charges during a bench meeting, “Don’t get tired chasing the puck”.

Afterwards he admitted ways to maintain a steady charge sometimes hit home like a one-timer.

“It’s funny to find ways to get them to conserve energy,” he said. “It’s sort of the opposite of the usual strategy in a hockey game.”

He went with a conservative strategy: a 2-2-1 alignment.

“We kept one player deep, two sort of hung back, and if we got a turnover in there we kind of pushed forward,” he said.

Pointing to Michelle Sansom as the on-ice leader, she had a goal and kept vigilant along the boards.

“She was a pretty solid player last year, but she’s really improved. She’s a fantastic player,” Johnstone said.

A much needed boost came from rookie Laura MacInnes-Rae who also buried the puck into the net.

“She’s a first timer and she hasn’t really played hockey before but she scored today, it was her first of the year and it was easily her
best game of the year,” Johnstone said. “She’s starting to pick it up. It’s fun to watch.”

Wendy Eckel scored the other Saints goal on the powerplay.

Giving Northern a hard time between the pipes was Katharine Reiss, but she was still tagged for four goals.

Having a starting goalie was something Red Knights coach Frank DeLeo was yearning for.

“We had to put a defenceman in net because our goalie was away today,” he said. “One of our scrappier ones, so we took a hit on the defence.

“The players adjusted and took away our opponents’ ice.”

Picking up Northern’s goals were Devon Moir, Sophie Coles, Alex Rodriguez and Andree Heller.

With the playoffs fast approaching Johnstone is looking to have a few of his starting players back in the lineup.

“They all play outside of school so they’re playing a lot and they play at a pretty competitive level most of them,” he said. “We have one out with a concussion, our best player is out with a thigh injury. We’ve had a couple of concussions this year — it’s been a bit of an issue.”

Richview sits at a 1-3 record while Northern is in the middle of the pack with 3-3. The Saints look to pick up some players for their

Feb. 1 game against Forest Hill while the Red Knights played the Etobicoke Rams Jan. 25. Results were not known at press time.

DeLeo is optimistic Northern will continue to pose a threat in District Region play.

“This puts us at .500, and we’ve been competitive in every game so we look to do well,” he said.