Women’s Hockey wins First Round of Playoffs

The regular season of the AJFHL wound up on February 13 and the Lakeland Kings Energy Group Rustlers Hockey Team headed into the first round of the playoffs this past weekend.  In the quarter-finals, the women competed in a best of three against the Fort Saskatchewan Fury.

Saturday the Rustlers traveled to Fort Saskatchewan for game one in what was an extremely tight game on the scoreboard.  Fort Saskatchewan opened the scoring before Jayde Cadieux evened the game at 1 to end the first period.  Kennedy Taylor and Asha Petrie added two goals in the second period to lead the Rustlers into the third period with a 3 – 1 lead.  The Fury came back with 2 quick goals in the first half of the third period before Reece Pittman scored the game-winner on a power play with 5 minutes remaining to lead the Rustlers on to a 4 – 3 and a game one victory.  Chantel Weller made 24 saves for the Rustlers.

Saturday at home the Rustlers scored early and often, Mackenzie Stafford opened the scoring followed up with goals from Jayde Cadieux, Lana Duriez, Taylor Wilkinson, and Olivia Mann to finish the first period with a 5 – 0 lead.  There was no scoring in the second period but the Rustlers added 3 more in the third from Cadieux, Stafford, and Duriez who each scored their second goals of the game for the home team on their way to an 8 – 0 victory and a first-round playoff win.  Captain Jayde Cadieux led all Rustler scorers with 5 points and Chantel Weller stopped all 15 shots she faced for the shutout.

The Rustlers will now face the Edmonton Wolves in the league semi-finals best of three, which will commence this upcoming weekend to see who will compete against the south champion in the league finals.