NAIT Ooks gear up for a strong second half of the season

The Ooks are back and buzzing for the second half of the season! There are only 12 games left to play and the standings are as tight as ever—every single game counts!

Recap

The Ooks had a strong start to their second half. They played the SAIT Trojans their first weekend back and were able to sweep them: 3-0 on Friday and 2-1 on Saturday. Goals on Friday were scored by Cassidy Shandro, Meg Leblanc and Bre Martin, and goaltender Kaitlyn Slator got a shutout. Saturday’s goals were scored by Martin and Livia Lucova.

Following that successful weekend, the Ooks took on the Red Deer Queens who are one point ahead of the Ooks in the standings. Friday night, the Ooks lost 3-2 with goals from Brittney Savard and Treasure Posch. On Saturday, they came out hard and were able to take the game from the Queens in the shootout 5-4. Michaella Kibblewhite got two goals and Shandro and Savard each got one as well. Savard and Leblanc scored in the shootout while Slator shut the door at the other end for the Ooks to take the win.

Rookie Introduction

Let’s introduce the last of the rookies.:#9 Kadey Rosie, #15 Natsumi Sugimoto and #20 Halle Petek are the rest of the first years we have on the team.

Kadey Rosie is an 18-year-old forward who is taking Open Studies. She is from Red Deer, AB and played Midget AAA last year for the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs.

Natsumi Sugimoto is a 22-year-old defence who is taking English Second Language. She is from Tokyo, Japan and played for the Seibu Princess Rabbits last year.

Halle Petek is an 18-year-old defence who is taking Open Studies. She is from Vancouver, B.C. and played Midget A last year for the Vancouver Angels.

Coming up

The Ooks have a big weekend this weekend against their inner city rivals, the MacEwan Griffins. The Griffins lead the league with 26 points. The Ooks are five points behind at 21, so they’re looking to sweep the Griffins this weekend and close that gap.

To do so, the Ooks are going to need to score more goals. It’s tough to win a game with two goals and in half of their games so far this half, they’ve only scored two goals. The goal scoring has been consistent from some players but the Ooks need all of their lines to start producing.

While their energy has been good, they also need to tighten up their defence. If you score four goals in a game (like the Ooks did against Red Deer), you should be able to win, but it’s very hard to win if you let the other team score four goals against you. The possession game should be one that the Ooks play this weekend, along with tight zone defence to keep the Griffins to the outside.

The Ooks play the Griffins at 7pm Friday January 24 at the Downtown Community Arena in Edmonton and at 2pm Saturday January 25 at NAIT arena.