Bears headed west for Crown Tournament before resuming regular season schedule
The Prince Albert Northern Bears are headed out of province this weekend to take on some of the top U18 female hockey teams in Western Canada.
The Bears are one of 16 teams headed to Devon, Alta. for the 2025 U18 Female Prep Canadian Crown Tournament on Oct. 10-13. Head coach Steve Young said it will be a good test for a young Bears team.
“They’re high tempo games, but at the same time they don’t mean anything in the standings so we are able to make some adjustments,” Young said. “We’ll give them the week off after that and get right back to league play.”
The Bears will face the North Shore Warriors in their first game of the tournament Friday morning. That’s followed up with games against the Red Deer Chiefs and Vancouver Island Seals.
Young said it’s good to face competition from other provinces. He’s hopeful the tournament will give the Bears time to work on a few things before they resume the regular season.
“We had a tough start here with a lot of games early, but the break will be good and the tournament will be good as well,” he said.
The Bears currently sit fourth in the SFUI18AAAHL Standings with a 1-3-0-1 record. They earned their first point of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 1 when they lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Regina Rebels in Regina.
They followed that up with their first win of the season when they shutout the Weyburn Gold Wings 3-0 on Saturday, Oct. 4.
Jersie Andersen scored the game winner on the power play roughly five and a half minutes into the first period. The game remained 1-0 PA until the final minutes of the third when Layah Mitchell scored unassisted. Zoey Krienke added an empty net goal to make the final 3-0.
Avery Brunen made 37 stops to earn the shutout for Prince Albert, while Tila Boyd made 32 saves in the Weyburn goal.
“We needed a good first period and that’s what we got,” Young said when asked about the win. “We had the momentum. We scored a five-on-five, a power play, and an empty net (goal). I thought our girls played very well.”
They Gold Wings turned the tables on the Bears, winning 3-0 in the rematch on Sunday. Harper Danchilla, Nola Exner, and Skyla McNichol had the goals for Weyburn while Maci Patterson made 32 saves to earn the shutout.
Young said the Bears played well, but ran into a hot goalie.
“She was a big difference in their win,” Young said of Patterson’s play. “We did have a lot of chances early. When a goaltender’s having success it kind of frustrates you and puts you back a bit, but I’ve got to give Weyburn credit. They came out the next day and were ready to play after being beat.”
Maggie Schell made 30 saves in the Prince Albert goal.
Following the Crown Tournament, the Bears are back at home for a two-game series with the Regina Rebels. Puck drop for the first game is 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Art Hauser Centre.
Article from Prince Albert Daily Harold @kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca on October 8, 2025