Team Manitoba has fallen to 0-2 at the Western Regional Women’s U18 Hockey Championship. They were taken down 4-2 by Team Alberta tonight in a game where the locals shined the brightest.

Manitoba opened the scoring with the only goal of the first period as Portager Danika Botterill put home her first of the tournament on the power-play. 

Unfortunately for Team Manitoba, Alberta would dominate the scoring summary in the second period as they scored three unanswered goals. Alberta scored again early in the third to bring the lead up to 4-1.

Portage’s other representative Oceane Asham also found the back of the net in this outing but that was the last bit of offence Manitoba was able to produce. This gave us the final of 4-2 Alberta.

Forward Danika Botterill says they played better as a unit in this game.

“Yeah, we were starting to connect more out there tonight,” says Botterill. “Our passes were on tape today, which was really good.”

She outlines what they want to improve on tomorrow.

“Try and keep up our pace and keep up with the other teams or play even faster,” Botterill explains. “We are also going to try to connect even more.”

The other game that took place in the tournament today saw Team British Columbia improve to 2-0 with a big overtime win. They defeated Team Saskatchewan 4-3.

Saskatchewan is now 0-2 but battled very hard today as they tied the game up with less than three minutes left in regulation. Despite their resilience, they were taken down early in the overtime period when Jade Iginla found the back of the net on a one-timer.

Team Manitoba will play their final of the three round-robin matchups tomorrow at 6:30 at Stride Place as they take on Team Saskatchewan. 

Team British Columbia and Team Alberta will face off at 1:30.