Bears embarking on season of new beginnings
By Daily Herald Contributor-September 11, 2026
Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
A lot has changed for Prince Albert’s Midget AAA female hockey team since they last played a meaningful game in last season’s Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League playoffs.
Firstly, the club has a new title sponsor and is now known as the Prince Albert Raider Northern Bears, which head coach Steve Young says is a natural fit since both are hockey organizations.
“I really think it will be a benefit for both of us,” noted Young. “It is nice to have ties with another hockey organization.”
Secondly, they have packed up and relocated from the Art Hauser Centre and moved to the Lake Country Co-op Leisure Centre where they have a dedicated dressing room that Young says will only benefit the club in the long run.
“We are very thankful to the City of Prince Albert for allowing this,” states Young. “Having our own dressing room is very important. It is a place they can call their home.”
The Bears are coming off a season that saw them finish fifth in the seven-team league, but they were red-hot coming down the stretch winning eight of their last nine regular-season games and had a 1-0 advantage in the opening round of the playoffs against the Saskatoon Stars before dropping the final two matches of the best-of-three affair.
A large portion of that team is back with just eight new faces and Young says he has been very pleased with how things have gone through training camp and the first couple weeks of daily workouts.
“The girls came into camp and worked very hard,” says Young. “We will see where we are after this weekend. They will have a better understanding of how to play as a hockey team. We have to be a hard-working club.”
The Bears are in Calgary this weekend to compete in the prestigious Firestarter tournament. At that event they will face some strong competition and Young says from their performance there they will then be able to set some goals for the season.
“It’s different when you just have practices,” says Young. “After we play some games we will have a better idea of where we are.”
It will be a veteran core up front leading the way for the Bears this year with players like Jersie Andersen, Londyn Hoffman and Zoey Krienke all returning for a third season with the club. Andersen, in particular, will be leaned on heavily for her offensive skills as she finished third in league scoring last year and has 69 points in 60 career regular-season games with the Bears.
The big question mark will be in goal as the Bears are bringing in a pair of rookies to provide the final defence. Kailyn Coulter is a 17-year-old from Warman while Tess Kelly is a 16-year-old from Brock, Sask., who appeared in a pair of games with the Swift Current Wildcats last season.
The Bears will open the regular season on Sept. 26-27 when they will host the Weyburn Gold Wings with those games to start at 7 p.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. Before then, however, they will have one more chance to evaluate the team when they will play a neutral-site game on the Thunderchild First Nation on Sept. 24. Lakeland College from Lloydminster will be the opponents for that match.
