Lucas Punkari
Although a fifth-place finish at the national championships certainly is an accomplishment that shouldn’t be diminished, it easily could be viewed as a letdown for the Rainy River Community College girls’ hockey program.
The Voyageurs, who had won three of the last four ACHA Division II titles, fell short in their quest to repeat as national champ this past weekend in Wooster, Ohio.
They finished with a 1-1 record in pool play and missed out on the semi-finals due to having the worst goals against differential of the three teams in their group.
“It was an up-and-down weekend,” said Voyageurs’ head coach Evan Amdahl.
“I don’t know if we were a little over-confident against Alaska in our first game [on Saturday night] or what, but we gave up two goals,” he noted.
“And [then] we pulled the goalie to try and get back in it, with the empty net goal that they scored to win 3-0 costing [us] in the long run.
“In the first game, you don’t think about that,” Amdahl stressed.
“You go there to play to win but it just didn’t work out that way,” he reasoned.
Following that opening setback, the Voyageurs bounced back Sunday morning with a 2-0 shutout of Delaware, with Chelsea Poulton and Brittany Johnson netting the goals.
Katelynn Stearns, meanwhile, turned aside all 12 shots she faced.
“We pretty much controlled the whole game,” Amdahl recalled. “And when they had a couple of quality scoring chances, Katie was able to shut the door.
“Just like the first game, we couldn’t get the puck into the net in the first two periods, which has been an issue for us all year long,” he added.
“In the third period, though, the girls just didn’t quit out there and they were able to get a couple of goals.”
With the Voyageurs still needing one more goal to advance to the semi-finals, the team pulled their goalie with a little over a minute to go.
They also had a 6-on-4 advantage in the late stages of the third, but they were unable to get the marker they needed.
“Going in we knew that we needed a three-goal victory [to advance], and I told the girls to just get that first goal and let things play out from there,” Amdahl said.
“Everything fell right into where we wanted it to, but we just couldn’t get one to drop and fell out as a result.”
Alaska went on to play in the title game Monday night, where they lost 5-2 to Wisconsin-Stout 5-2.
The Voyageurs, meanwhile, finished off the tournament on a winning note Monday morning, defeating California University of Pennsylvania 3-1 in the fifth-place game.
“It was a good way to finish off the weekend,” Amdahl said.
“In the first period alone, we held them to [one] shot on goal and that pretty much told the story of the entire game right there,” he added.
Johnson, Katrina Wreggitt, and Lea Aaberg all scored in that one, with Aaberg’s goal proving to be one of the most memorable moments of the season for Amdahl.
“She started in her first game of the tournament in that game and she ended up getting her first-ever college goal, which turned out to be the game-winner,” he noted.
“And Melanie Scott of Fort Frances also got her first point of the entire season on the same play.
“Just goes to show you that hard work throughout the year pays off in the long run, and to see both of those players finish off the year with a point in the last game is something that gives you a really good feeling as coach,” Amdahl smiled.
Another memorable moment from the weekend was the return of Emo’s Carlee Bosma for the last two games of the tournament after she was thought to have been lost for the season with a torn ACL.
“She wanted to come back in the worst way to help the team out in any way that she could, and we taped the heck out of her knee so much that she could hardly get her brace on,” Amdahl said.
“It says a lot about the grit and determination that she has, and it shows to those that think that this is just a club hockey team that amount of commitment that these girls have,” he stressed.
With this season having come to an end, Amdahl already is looking ahead to the 2012/13 ACHA campaign, especially with regards to filling the roster spots that will be left open due to players moving on.
“We might have only five or six girls back, so we’re already hard at work on getting those new players in,” he remarked.
“Right now we don’t have a goalie with Katie graduating, which is kind of scary when you don’t have a goalie lined up already for next year, so that’s going to be the biggest place to fill right now.
“Katie’s left some big shoes to fill, though, and it’s not going to be an easy task to try and replace her,” Amdahl said of the Fort Frances netminder.
