The Battlefords AAA Sharks won鈥檛 start their Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League season until Oct. 15 in Melville.
Although the rest of the league will already have the first games of their campaigns done by then, Sharks head coach Gary Berggren is hoping the extra preparation time will allow his team to hit the ground running.
鈥淪o far things are going well,鈥� Berggren said. 鈥淲e have a lot of new systems that we are trying to implement here so it鈥檚 been a work in progress.
鈥淥ur team has a lot of younger players that haven鈥檛 gone through stuff like this before, and we also have returning players who are getting used to everything. It will take some time, but things are moving in the right direction.鈥�
The Sharks鈥� last pre-season tune-up took place in Martensville Thursday, where they lost a 6-1 affair to the Prince Albert Northern Bears.
鈥淭he game was actually pretty even in the first two periods,鈥� Berggren said. 鈥淭he shots were really close and we just had some bad luck around our net.
鈥淲e gave up a couple of bad goals to fall behind and then once we got down 4-0, it was tough for our younger players to get back into that competitive mindset after falling behind by that many goals. That鈥檚 something they will learn to overcome, though, as the season goes on.鈥�
Prior to that game, the Sharks travelled to Portage La Prairie, Man. on Sept. 23-25 to take part in the Central Plains Capitals Showcase Tournament.
They went 1-3 at the event with their lone win coming against the Interlake Lightning of Stonewall, Man. by a score of 3-1.
In their other games, they dropped a close 1-0 decision to the Norman Wild, were shutout 3-0 to the host Capitals and fell 3-2 to the Eastman Selects of Winnipeg.
鈥淲e outshot all four teams that we played against but we had trouble scoring when we got around the net in all of those games,鈥� Berggren said.
鈥淚t just seemed like we had bad luck whenever we got a shot on goal or a bounce would go their way. All in all though, it was a good tournament.鈥�
Through the five pre-season games that the Sharks have played, one of the things that Berggren has been focusing on is how well the players are catching on to the new systems.
鈥淲e want to make sure that everything is good on that front before the regular season begins,鈥� Berggren said.
鈥淚 thought our breakout play was really good in Portage and our penalty kill was a lot better when we played Prince Albert. The power play hasn鈥檛 quite clicked yet and we still have some work to do on the forecheck, but things are progressing nicely.鈥�
The Sharks will make their debut at the Battleford Arena on Oct. 29 when the Notre Dame Hounds pay a visit for a weekend series.
