Erä - Naiset (6 - 5)

An exciting game for the crowd. A tense game for the coaches. And a disappointing end for our players, losing in extra time. This was probably not our hardest game of the season, but it was maybe the most even game that we have played, where the result could've gone either way. 

We made a really good start to this game, but we allowed Erä to control the tempo of the game too much in the second period & we didn't take advantage of our own strengths. We seemed to lack some confidence to really take their players on in one-on-one situations. Their ability to score 4 goals to our 1 goal in the first 8 minutes of the last period really gave them the confidence to win this game. 

We played the final minutes of regular time short-handed & then had to begin extra time in the same situation. Although we were focussing on trying to win this game, I think our desire to win the game meant that in extra time we were distracted from our first job of defending the game while Erä still had a power-play situation. 

Unfortunately for us, Erä did manage to score from their power-play & it showed us (again) that winning close games is near-impossible if we have a player on the penalty bench in the final minutes of the game.

Sarah Mitchell
Päävalmentaja