Joey Payeur
The rink was tropical but the revenge was served ice cold.
Shelby Tymkin had a goal and an assist as the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs blanked the West Chester University of Pennsylvania Golden Rams 6-0 yesterday in their first game at the ACHA Division 2 national women’s hockey championship in Kalamazoo, Mich.
It was the ideal payback for the West Region’s No. 1-ranked Voyageurs after losing in the semi-finals last year to the East Region’s fourth-seeded Rams.
“We had a little slow start to each period,” admitted RRCC head coach Jeff Wickstrom.
“It was really warm in that rink, and we had to readjust at the start of each period and then again near the end,” he noted.
“But the girls found that next gear.”
Leading 3-0 after one, Tymkin stuffed home one of her patented wraparounds just over four minutes into the second.
Then two other former Muskies did their part to make it 5-0 when Shilo Beck fed Hailey Clendenning, who rocketed a shot past the Rams’ goalie.
Bridget Jorgenson of Fort Frances later assisted on Micah Cabral’s second goal of the game for the lone tally of the third.
“Six goals, five different goal scorers,” lauded Wickstrom, whose roster also includes Fort forward Katie Sinclair.
“I was saying on the way down we need everyone contributing and that’s what we got.”
Shay Perry earned the shutout.
Next up is a date with West Region rivals and No. 2-ranked Northern Michigan University Wildcats today at 4:30 p.m. (CST), whom RRCC swept in their three earlier meetings this season.
The Wildcats opened with a 5-2 win over the third-seeded California University of Pennsylvania Vulcans earlier yesterday.
“Apparently, there were a lot of comments from the Wildcats about how they couldn’t understand how they lost to us because we were playing nowhere near as good against West Chester as we did earlier in the year,” chuckled Wickstrom.
“So let’s see what happens [today].”
The two other West Region teams got off to solid starts in Pool ‘B’ action yesterday.
The defending national champion and top-seeded North Dakota State University Bison edged the third-ranked University of Delaware Blue Hens 2-1.
The fourth-seeded University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, meanwhile, routed the second-ranked Buffalo University Bulls 5-1.
The top two teams from each pool advance to the semi-finals Saturday, with the final set for Sunday.
