Lucas Punkari
It’s not very often that a runner-up finish at a national tournament can be considered a disappointment. But given the run of success for the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs women’s hockey team over the last few seasons, that was exactly the case a year ago.
With a 8-1 thrashing at the hands of Northeastern University (Boston) in last season’s American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II championships still fresh in his team’s mind, Voyageurs’ coach Evan Amadahl is looking to return to top of the heap at this year’s tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich., which gets underway Friday.
“After winning the two previous seasons, to finish second last year, which is still a pretty high accomplishment, was a bit of a disappointment,” Amadahl admitted during practice last week over in International Falls.
“The bar is set pretty high here after winning two national titles, and the girls that lost last year, even though they weren’t around for those previous two titles, were extremely disappointed,” he reasoned.
Having previously captured the ACHA crown in 2008 and 2009 over Minnesota-Duluth and St. Scholastica (Duluth), respectively, the Voyageurs’ program now is looked upon as one of the best in the U.S., which is proven by their number-one overall seed in Pool ‘B’ for this year’s tournament.
“Success breeds success, and having won twice before gives the program an aura about itself and makes players want to come here and become a part of the system,” Amadahl explained.
“The kids compete together hard in practice because they want to get better and they push each other in order to that,” he noted.
“We have two of the best goaltenders in the nation [Kelsey Fuerst and Fort Frances native Katelynn Stearns] competing for the starting spot, and it’s the same thing on defence and offence,” Amadahl stressed.
With last year’s champions from Northeastern having moved up to the Division I ranks this season, the Voyageurs are considered one of the favourites to capture the title after posting a stellar regular-season record of 15-1-1.
“I think the biggest reason for our success is our depth,” said freshman forward Jessie Baker, a former member of the Muskie girls’ hockey team.
“A lot of our forwards are really good goal scorers, our top lines our able to put up a lot of points and have a lot of speed to deal with, and our goaltending is really strong, as well,” she added.
“Our only loss this year came to a Division I program [University of Minnesota],” Amadahl noted.
“Being a small school [300 students], we’re limited to our budget which keeps us at a D-II level,” he explained. “But with the level of hockey that we play, we would probably be competitive at a D-I level.”
This year’s roster is a fairly diverse one, with players from Alaska and California on the squad. But the majority of the team hails from Rainy River District and International Falls.
“This was my only opportunity to play hockey and it was close to home, so I’m able to save some money and then go away for schooling next year,” explained Baker.
“I still have to drive in from Emo, which is a bit tough sometimes, but it’s a lot better than it would be if I was away from home,” she reasoned.
After taking a charter bus to Kalamazoo tomorrow, the Voyageurs will open round-robin play with a game against the UConn Huskies at 8 p.m. (EST) on Friday before taking on the West Chester University Golden Rams at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday.
If the Voyageurs finish in the top two spots in Pool ‘B,’ they will take on either Delaware, South Dakota State, or Minnesota-Duluth from Pool ‘A’ in the semi-finals Saturday night.
The tournament final is set for Sunday at 3 p.m.
But while the Voyageurs are considered to be one of the best bets to capture the crown this year, team members are very optimistic about their chances.
“I think we’ll do okay down there,” said freshman forward Katrina Wreggitt of Fort Frances, another former Muskie.
“When we went to Winnipeg earlier this year and played against some harder teams, I don’t think we fared that badly,” she noted.
“It’s going to be a pretty tough tournament,” Baker conceded.
“We haven’t played a lot of good teams this year, so the competition will be a little be harder at the nationals, but I think we’re in a good condition going into the weekend,” she stressed.
