The Cochrane Chaos Jr. female team's exhibition season kicks into high gear this weekend with three games at the SLS Centre.

The defending champions of the Alberta Junior Female Hockey League (AJFHL) play Calgary Fire tonight and the Calgary Titans tomorrow. The weekend wraps up Sunday with a matinee game against the newest AJFHL team, the Foothills Storm.

All games are at Totem One with a 6:30 p.m. start time on both Friday and Saturday. The puck drops Sunday at 2:15 p.m.

Head coach Derek Loomer says the Chaos roster has been all but finalized.

"I think the girls that are there should be there through the season," he says. "We're down to 21, so we might add a couple of girls to increase the size of our roster but I think the ones we have are going to stick. It should be a pretty good group. I mean they have some really big shoes to fill from our departing overagers."

Kaley Mueller, Brooklyn Carels, Nicole Johnson, and Kalaina Kozak have all finished their junior careers and played a big role in capturing that first provincial championship.

Cochrane's Sarah Nusl was another key player. She's not only back, but is team captain. There's been a surprise return of sniper Kelly Stanford, who won the league scoring race last season. Her plans to move to Nova Scotia got foiled.

The Chaos started their preseason with a pair of games in Lloydminster against the Lakeland Rustlers of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference.

The Chaos kick off their regular season with a pair of road games. They're in Lethbridge to face the Eagles on Oct. 1 before heading to Blackie on Oct. 7 to play the Storm.

Their Oct. 14 home opener against the Central Alberta Amazons is highly anticipated. It's always a special celebration of female hockey, and you can expect plenty of cheers when they reveal the banner from their first provincial championship. 

The AJFHL is an eight-team league with four in the north division and an equal number in the south. The Calgary Jags have pulled out of the league after icing a team for five seasons.

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