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ST. PIERRE’S 47 STOPS CAN’T SAVE CANADA IN LOSS TO RED DEER
RED DEER, Alta. – Kim St. Pierre (Châteauguay, Que.) may have stopped 47 shots, but it wasn’t enough to
stop the Red Deer Optimist Rebels from edging Canada’s National Women’s Team 3-1 on Tuesday night at Red Deer
Arena.
More than 1,000 fans packed the rink to see the home team avenge a 4-2 loss to Canada back on October 2 in
the NWT Midget Series opener. The Red Deer win dropped Canada’s Midget Series record to 9-5, although the
Optimist Rebels will not pick up points in the AMHL standings with the victory.
Through 40 minutes it was a goaltender’s duel, as St. Pierre and Mac Engel combined to stop all 51 shots
they faced in the first two periods, 35 of those saves by the Canadian netminder as the Optimist Rebels
controlled much of the play.
Despite averaging more than four goals a game in AMHL play, it took Red Deer more than 49 minutes to get
on the board, finally beating St. Pierre on Jarrett Zentner’s goal at the 9:29 mark of the third period.
Steven Malofka made it 2-0 just over five minutes later, but the Canadians struck back 1:33 later, with Haley
Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont.) ending Engel’s shutout bid.
Unfortunately for the national team, its momentum would last just eight seconds, as Justin Faux restored
the two-goal advantage for the Optimist Rebels and rounded out the scoring.
Red Deer held a lopsided 50-21 advantage in shots on goal, the first time Canada has allowed more than 40
shots during Midget Series play.
The National Women’s Team next takes on the Calgary Northstars in Midget Series action on Thursday night
(7:30 p,m. MT) at Father David Bauer Olympic Arena before taking to the ice for its first-ever games against
a Junior A team, against the Calgary Canucks on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. MT) at Max Bell Centre.
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