Midget Wildcats open season in Marquette

The Sault Ste Marie Midget AA Wildcats opened their season on the weekend in Marquette playing the Under-19 Tier 1 Iron Rangers in three exhibition games.

The Wildcats out-hustled, out-shot and out-chanced their opponents in two of the three games but were unable to out-score them, losing 2-1, 2-1 and 2-0 respectively.

Sault Ste Marie’s Julia Sayers opened the scoring in the first game of the series with a power play goal. Megan Dubas and Jenna Buck had the assists.

The Iron Rangers evened the score five minutes later beating Wildcats goalie, Stephanie Graham, with a low shot. Just one minute later Marquette struck again, scoring the winning goal with less than four minutes remaining in the second period.

The Wildcats out-played Marquette in the final frame but were unable to capitalize on several scoring chances.

Missed opportunities for the Sault team continued in the final two games. Robin Koskela scored the Wildcats only goal on a breakaway in the second game.

Goalie Dana Desaulnier stopped 22 of 24 shots in the loss, the only game in which Marquette managed to out-shoot the Wildcats.

Desaulnier and Graham shared the duties in the third game, allowing one goal each in the 2-0 loss.

The Wildcats travel to Espanola this weekend for two games against North Bay.

(Submitted by Lorie Springall)