Saskatoon Stars advance to Esso Cup semifinal after 8-1 win

The Saskatoon Stars are heading to the semifinal of the Esso Cup in Lloydminster, after defeating the Eastern Stars out of Prince Edward Island 8-1 on Thursday evening.

Although the game ended in a blowout, Saskatoon was trailing in the first period.

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Taylor Hunter opened the scoring for the Eastern Stars to make it 1-0 2:51 into the hockey game.

With 13 minutes remaining in the opening frame, Saskatoon was able to respond, as Halle Duchene got a shot past Eastern Stars goalie Olivia Lowe to tie the game at 1-1.

Mikayla Broadfoot gave Saskatoon its first lead of the night when she scored to make it 2-1 with 9:11 remaining in the first period.

Before the period was over, Duchene added a second goal to make it 3-1 heading into the intermission.

The second period was quiet for both sides, with the only goal coming from Saskatoon’s Shayla Koroll, to make it 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Saskatoon’s offense exploded in the third period, especially for two of its top scorers, Duchene and Kolbee Ashe.

Ashe scored 2:49 into the final frame to make it 5-1 Stars. She followed that with a second goal on the power play just minutes later to extend Saskatoon’s lead to 6-1.

In the final two minutes of the game, Duchene and Ashe both capped off their hat tricks to help lead the Stars to the 8-1 victory.

The hat trick from Duchene bumps her up to 10 points in the tournament, tied for the lead with North York Storm forward Lily Paisley.

The victory over the Eastern Stars means Saskatoon will hold the second seed heading into Friday, and will play the North York Storm out of Ontario.

North York and Saskatoon met in the opening game of the tournament on Easter Sunday. In that game, Saskatoon defeated North York 5-4 in regulation time.

Both North York and Saskatoon are going into the Friday game with a record of 2-0-1-2.

The Edmonton Junior Oilers finished the round robin in first place overall, with a 4-1-0-0 record.