Joey Payeur
A snub before the semi-finals fired up an already ambitious group of Canadians to the point where they left the rest of the tournament field red, white, and very blue.
The Lakehead Thunderwolves, including Fort Frances resident Katie Sinclair, restored national pride–and made history–in defeating the North Dakota State University Bison 3-1 on Sunday in the final of the ACHA Division 2 women’s national championship in Columbus, Ohio.
Lakehead U., in its first official season in the ACHA, also became the first Canadian team to lay claim to an ACHA title.
The Thunderwolves took it personally when only the American national anthem was played before their 6-1 drubbing of the Northern Michigan University Wildcats in Saturday’s semi-final between the top two seeds from the West region.
“To be honest, we had talked about playing the anthem for the games, but we were informed that they wouldn’t so we really weren’t expecting to hear it,” noted Sinclair, who finished the four-game tournament with three goals and four assists.
“Not playing it made us want to win even more not only for us, our coaches, [and] our school but also our country, with us being proud to be the first Canadian team in the ACHA,” she added.
“Not playing the Canadian anthem wasn’t the only reason we had something to prove to Northern Michigan, though,” Sinclair conceded.
“Prior to the tournament, after the final rankings, Northern Michigan was upset they weren’t ranked first since they had beaten us both games back in October,” she explained.
“Considering it was our first game as a team, we knew that those games weren’t a good representation of the team we were,” Sinclair said.
“We knew we deserved to be the top team and we definitely proved that in the semi-finals.”
The Thunderwolves opened the season by losing their first three games, then never lost again in crafting a 19-game winning streak that extended all the way through Sunday’s final.
“Winning this year was absolutely amazing,” enthused Sinclair, the former Muskie who made it to the nationals the last two years with the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs only to finish tied for third in 2015 and then losing 2-1 in double overtime in last year’s final to the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs.
“We have worked so hard all year and come so far as a team and as friends,” she stressed.
“We knew we had the ability to win it all and having done so feels pretty good.”
Jacqueline Desimone put the Thunderwolves in front at 10:27 of the first period against NDSU, the third seed in the West, by tapping home a backhanded rebound try after tournament MVP Michelle Carlson’s original shot.
The second period saw old high school rivals join forces to make magic.
Former Dryden Eagle Olivia Carter tied up her face-off opponent as Sinclair swooped in to grab the puck, then darted to the corner.
Her backhanded shot went off the base of the net and right in front to Carter, who was left all alone and promptly went upstairs to the stick side of Bison goalie Sydney Swanson.
“Before Liv’s goal, we were only up by one and they were outworking us quite a bit,” Sinclair recalled.
“[But] knowing their goalie wasn’t the strongest and let off a lot of rebounds, our game plan was just to put pucks on the net.
“I saw Liv coming in, but I knew I couldn’t get the pass to her as there was a NDSU player blocking the path,” she added.
“I took the shot and it just worked out that the rebound found Liv perfectly, and she put it in the back of the net.”
The Thunderwolves put a vise grip on the lead at 16:16 when Allison Pages knocked down Melissa Plug’s shot from the right-wing boards in front of Swanson and held on for a second before roofing a shot of her own in the same spot Carter went.
Jessica Binstock gave some life for NDSU at 7:26 of the third–picking up the puck in the right circle, then going around Plug and Katrina Bert before sneaking a backhand through the skates of Lakehead goalie Callie Bevilacqua.
The Bison pulled Swanson with 2:10 to go, leading to Sinclair almost hitting a long-distance empty-netter in the final seconds that glanced off the post.
But that miscue quickly was forgotten in the post-game explosion of joy that centered around Bevilacqua in the Thunderwolves’ net.
The last player to reach the pile? Sinclair–racing in top speed with the Canadian flag firmly in hand.
And while the Lakehead logo was showing on the outside of her jersey, inside Sinclair’s heart and thoughts were none other than her RRCC teammates of the past two years.
“The first thing I did when I got my phone after the game was send a picture of me and the medal to Shilo [Beck], Shelby [Tymkin], Hailey [Clendenning], Micah [Cabral], Amber [Jourdain], and Marissa [Lindblad], letting them know that it wasn’t just mine but it was theirs, too,” she remarked.
“As a team last year, we were the ones that deserved that gold medal and it means a lot to me to finally bring it back for all of them,” Sinclair said.
