Joey Payeur
It’s not official yet but Jeff Wickstrom wasn’t making travel plans to Pennsylvania just to kill time yesterday.
The head coach of the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs had the pleasant problem of finding accommodations for his hockey team after his small squad completed a big mission in qualifying for the ACHA’s Division II national women’s championship March 4-6 in York, Pa.
Thanks to the Voyageurs’ two-game sweep of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles over the weekend, RRCC guaranteed itself a place in the top four of the West Regional rankings, which were due out sometime this week.
RRCC (14-3-3) sits third in the West Regional standings and second in its rankings—a spot they cemented with a 2-0 win Saturday and a 4-2 victory Sunday down in La Crosse.
“We said our original goal, when we sat down for our first meeting all in the same room on Aug. 27, was to make it to the nationals,” noted Wickstrom.
“Now that we made that goal, we’ve set another goal and that’s to win the nationals.”
RRCC accomplished its mission despite playing with only nine skaters and one regular goalie almost the entire season.
Four of those are former Muskies in forwards Shelby Tymkin, Shilo Beck, Katie Sinclair, and Hailey Clendenning.
“I’m absolutely proud of them all,” lauded Wickstrom, who returned to the program he took to nationals numerous times more than a decade ago just before the season started as a last-minute replacement for Evan Amdahl.
“They have done everything they possibly could and everything I have asked of them,” he noted.
“They put their whole heart into this.
“The group is so small, it’s like a little family,” Wickstrom added.
“The goal was there for them and they worked together to do it.”
Tymkin netted both goals in Saturday’s win, scoring against Eagles’ goalie Mia Bruesewitz early in the second and then adding another on a set-up from Sinclair in the third.
“On the first goal, Shelby just schooled them,” Wickstrom recalled.
“She walked around three or four of the Eagles with that little move that she had and then buried it.”
Voyageurs’ goalie Shalynn Perry, meanwhile, was dynamite all game—making 33 saves to earn the shutout.
“Shay played phenomenal,” Wickstrom said.
“That was a well-earned shutout,” he added. “It was her play in the back that kept us moving up front.”
Beck got things rolling Sunday—finishing off a three-way passing play involving Clendenning and Connor Coleman just over five minutes in.
“Connor just needs to strengthen up on her stick a little because she had half-a-dozen opportunities to put one away,” noted Wickstrom.
“But she has come a long way and since being one of the weak points on the team early on has improved 100 percent,” he added.
“From top to bottom in the lineup now, everybody’s making contributions.”
Tymkin doubled the lead later in the first, assisted by Sinclair.
Alex Nelson cut into the lead early in the second, but Tymkin replied just 31 seconds later to make it 3-1.
Marissa Bruesewitz again narrowed the lead later in the second before Kathryn Anderson tied it near the midway point of the third.
But RRCC was not to be denied. Micah Cabral hauled in Marissa Lindblad’s pass and rocketed a shot past Mia Bruesewitz for the game-winner.
“We’ve been working on all the girls with their slapshot, which is so key at this level,” said Wickstrom, whose team didn’t take a single penalty Sunday.
“It hit their goalie, trickled through, and went in.”
Wickstrom said La Crosse, which entered the game ranked sixth in the West Regional but with a shot at moving into the coveted top four with a sweep of the Voyageurs, turned to an aggressive style that crossed the line several times in their bid to upset RRCC.
“The Eagles did everything to get under our skin,” he remarked.
“They were hacking and whacking and threw in some pretty good cheap shots, but our girls kept their composure.”
With the rankings no longer a concern, the Voyageurs will turn their attention to sharpening their game in their two-game, regular-season finale against the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs this weekend.
Games at Bronco Arena begin Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.
