Frykas fires Manitoba into hockey semis

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/11/2008 (6412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BREANN Frykas of East St. Paul scored a pair of goals Friday as Manitoba’s under-18 female hockey team earned a berth in the semifinal round of the 2008 National Women’s Under-18 Hockey Championship in Napanee, Ont., with a 4-1 win over Alberta.

Manitoba did not know its opponent or which semifinal game it will be playing today until late Friday night, they will finish in either first or second place in pool B.

“We are really excited to be in the semifinal and we feel we’re doing really well for having such a young team, because a lot of teams are underestimating us,” Frykas said in a telephone interview. “We have a team this year that is capable of reaching our goal of winning a gold medal because we have enough players with the right talent, even though we come from a small province.”

Christine Bestland of Brunkild had a goal and an assist and was named Manitoba’s player of the game while Brittany Hergesheimer had a pair of assists. Rachele Bosc of Dufresne scored Manitoba’s fourth goal.

Manitoba finished the preliminary round with a 2-1 record, with wins over B.C. (3-2) and Alberta and a 6-3 loss to Quebec on Thursday night.

In the loss to Quebec, Manitoba came from behind to tie the score three times before Quebec scored three third-period goals to steal the win.

“We learned a lot in that game because we’d tied it up 3-3 with 10 minutes left but then we fell apart,” said Frykas, who assisted on that third goal, a power-play marker. “It just shows how important it is to maintain your intensity for all 60 minutes of the game. We didn’t play the last 10 minutes of the game the way we should have.”

The medal round is set for Sunday.