Saskatoon Stars optimistic heading into holiday break

Heading into the break on a five-game losing streak could have been tough; consecutive losses at any point during the season can derail a team’s morale.

However, the Saskatoon Stars have faced some stiff competition throughout the first half of their season, having just completed one of their most difficult schedules.

“We’ve had an extremely tough schedule,” said head coach Robin Ulrich.

“There’s a national ranking system, and Regina is ranked second in the country. And out of all of the teams that play, we’ve been ranked with the toughest schedule in the country.”

Regardless of recent results, the effort displayed by the players has the group feeling confident heading into the break.

“Over the last 10-12 games we’ve been on the good side of everything, outside of last weekend against (Prince Albert),” Ulrich said.

“It definitely gives us that motivation and that confidence to know that we can play with (the top teams). That’s important to keep going into the second half of the season,” captain Makena Kushniruk added.

The girls now have an opportunity to make up ground in the standings with a favourable schedule coming out of the holidays.

“Our first half, we’ve been (in) playoff hockey since puck drop in October,” Ulrich said. “For our second half, we’ve got a really favourable schedule, we’re going to play everyone around us. So, there’s chances to get points and move up on teams.”

“It’s nice that we’ve kind of started from the lowest point that we can, to move up,” forward Anica Gauthier said.

One thing both veteran and new players alike can agree on is that this team has the ability to make some noise during the stretch run of the regular season and into the playoffs.

“I think it’s the drive that we have from last year that we want to succeed again, we really want to go to nationals again,” defender Bridget Rezansoff said.

“But, as it’s a rebuilding year, I think that we just want to make sure that the girls keep getting better, and better so that next year we can be the best again.”

“Where we are right now, all we can do is move up. So, I think it would be pretty cool to sneak in there,” Gauthier added.