2009-10 National Women's Team

ST. PIERRE’S 47 STOPS CAN’T SAVE CANADA IN LOSS TO RED DEER

RED DEER, Alta. – Kim St. Pierre (Châteauguay, Que.) may have stopped 47 shots, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Red Deer Optimist Rebels from edging Canada’s National Women’s Team 3-1 on Tuesday night at Red Deer Arena.

More than 1,000 fans packed the rink to see the home team avenge a 4-2 loss to Canada back on October 2 in the NWT Midget Series opener. The Red Deer win dropped Canada’s Midget Series record to 9-5, although the Optimist Rebels will not pick up points in the AMHL standings with the victory.

Through 40 minutes it was a goaltender’s duel, as St. Pierre and Mac Engel combined to stop all 51 shots they faced in the first two periods, 35 of those saves by the Canadian netminder as the Optimist Rebels controlled much of the play.

Despite averaging more than four goals a game in AMHL play, it took Red Deer more than 49 minutes to get on the board, finally beating St. Pierre on Jarrett Zentner’s goal at the 9:29 mark of the third period. Steven Malofka made it 2-0 just over five minutes later, but the Canadians struck back 1:33 later, with Haley Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont.) ending Engel’s shutout bid.

Unfortunately for the national team, its momentum would last just eight seconds, as Justin Faux restored the two-goal advantage for the Optimist Rebels and rounded out the scoring.

Red Deer held a lopsided 50-21 advantage in shots on goal, the first time Canada has allowed more than 40 shots during Midget Series play.

The National Women’s Team next takes on the Calgary Northstars in Midget Series action on Thursday night (7:30 p,m. MT) at Father David Bauer Olympic Arena before taking to the ice for its first-ever games against a Junior A team, against the Calgary Canucks on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. MT) at Max Bell Centre.

Goals/Buts:
None/Aucun

Penalties/Punitions:
02:09 RD Kolton Gillett (Interference/Obstruction)
11:57 CAN Bench/Banc (Too Many Players/Trop du joueurs)
18:33 RD Blair Mulder (Tripping/Faire trébucher)

Goals/Buts:
None/Aucun

Penalties/Punitions:
04:30 RD Kirsten Odendaal (Delay of Game/Retarder le match)
09:44 CAN Meghan Agosta (Hooking/Accrocher)
16:04 CAN Gillian Apps (Interference/Obstruction)
19:51 RD Collin Valcourt (Slashing/Coup de bâton)

Goals/Buts:
09:29 RD Jarrett Zentner (Collin Valcourt, Justin Faux)
14:48 RD Steven Makofka (Brett Printz)
16:21 CAN Haley Irwin (Sarah Vaillancourt, Colleen Sostorics)
16:29 RD Justin Faux (Jarrett Zentner)

Penalties/Punitions:
None/Aucun