Western Collegiate Hockey Association
Mavericks See Open Road Beyond Bumps at Duluth
Nov. 29, 2007
If this was a storybook season, Minnesota State University, Mankato would have sprung an upset or two at Minnesota Duluth, and moved up more solidly into women's WCHA contention. It was not a storybook weekend in Duluth, but that doesn't mean this season can't still have a happy ending for the Mavericks.
The Mavericks face North Dakota seeking to return to the level that saw a pair of narrow losses at Wisconsin, then a split with St. Cloud State and a startling sweep over Ohio State. That 3-1 surge thrust Minnesota State into the tangle that includes Ohio State and St. Cloud State, just a shade behind the leading triumvirate of Minnesota Duluth, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
But while dropping a narrow 3-1 verdict at Duluth, and then getting snowed under by a 10-4 outburst by the Bulldogs last weekend, Minnesota State coach Jeff Vizenor never sought to make excuses.
"We've got to do better on special teams, and go back to the drawing board," Vizenor said, after the first game.
"We know we can play better," he added, after the second game got away.
In reality, the Mavericks are trying to stay close to the .500 mark while awaiting the return of Ashley Young and Lindsay Macy, two key players in expanding their offensive attack.
Young, a junior, was part of a much-heralded South St. Paul High School forward line with Amanda Stohr and Maggie Fisher, who went to Mankato intact. In high school that line that resembled the 1979 Soviet Red Army team for the way they passed the puck around. It hasn't been that easy in college, but all three have excelled. Because of injuries and a variety of circumstances, Stohr is a senior, Fisher a junior and Young is a sophomore.
Young played only the first four games this season, however, then suffered a broken ankle. Vizenor has been biding his time. Without Young, Fisher has scored five goals, five assists for 10 points and the team scoring lead. Stohr, at center, has 2-4--6. Young could return to the lineup this weekend, which might give her just enough time to be sharp for the second half of the season.
|
|
 |
Macy, another forceful player, was a victim of what should have been the Mavericks' finest weekend. While beating Ohio State 8-3 and 3-2, Macy went out with a broken foot, and nobody is sure when she'll come back. Obviously, the Mavs could have used both at Duluth.
The schedule itself hasn't been kind to the Mavericks, either. After a win and tie against Bemidji State, then playing the Badgers tough in a pair of 4-2 losses in Madison, Minnesota State beat St. Cloud State 3-2 in overtime in Mankato, then lost to the Huskies 3-1 in St. Cloud. Next came the 8-3, 3-2 sweep over Ohio State - perfect timing for the Mavericks to ... take a week off. Minnesota State went to Duluth and Vizenor wasn't sure how sharp his Mavericks would be.
Turned out, they were plenty sharp. Jodi Helminen scored the game's first goal, with Maggie Fisher assisting, at 5:12 of the opening period. Midway through the period, UMD penalty-killers Tawni Mattila and Iya Gavrilova broke up-ice 2-on-1, with Gavrilova making a late pass from deep on the right, across the goal-mouth where Mattila put it past goaltender Britni Kehler.
In the second period, Saara Tuominen scored a power-play goal to put UMD up 2-1, and Sara O'Toole's power-play goal midway through the third period gave UMD its 3-1 victory.
"We had some ideas of what we wanted to do, but their shorthanded goal gave them the momentum," said Vizenor. "We need to do a better job on special teams.
"Not much you can do," added Vizenor. "We played our best of the year against Ohio State. We were doing things well, and we know we've got hard workers with good character. Then we had a weekend off. It's hard to take a week off and keep your rhythm going."
The Mavs were up against a fiery pep talk in the other dressing room from coach Shannon Miller, and the Bulldogs made a team decision to prove they could play two strong games, back-to-back - something they hadn't done since following a tie with a victory in the Mercyhurst series. The result was a 10-4 rout.
Again, Vizenor didn't alibi. "They were flying," he said. "They were good in the first game, but they were much better tonight. Our kids kept battling. We know we can play better."
Minnesota State got into the game, when Lisa Edman scored a power-play goal to earn a 1-1 tie midway through the first period. But Mattila and Myriam Trepanier scored :55 seconds apart before the first period ended, and Haley Irwin scored her second and third goals of the night in the second period, sandwiching a goal by Emmanuelle Blais for a 6-2 lead, at which time both teams changed goaltenders.
Kristina Bunker, a senior from Blaine, Minn., who had three points against Ohio State, and scored a strange goal in the second period to boost her tally to 6-2--8 for the season, making her Mankato's career women's hockey scoring leader at 26-43--69. As the program's career scoring leader, she will never forget the goal that was her only point of the Duluth weekend.
At 17:21 of the second period, Bunker roared up the left side, got an opening, and veered for the net. At about the faceoff circle, she lost her footing and slid, hard, into goalie Johanna Ellison in the crease. The force of Bunker's slide knocked Ellison's feet out from under her, and both Bunker and Ellison wound up entirely inside the goal. When the players were untangled and dislodged from the goal, the puck - of course - was in there, too.
The goal cut the deficit to 6-2, but Saara Tuominen countered with a UMD goal before the second period ended, and Jaime Rasmussen scored her first two goals of the season early in the third to make it an insurmountable 9-2 cushion. Maggie Fisher scored later for the Mavs, and assisted on Brittany Mackley's last-minute goal.
Fisher, who was the best player the Mavericks had in the first game, added a goal and an assist in the second game for a three-point weekend that gives her a career tally of 38-29-67, as the Mavericks' top career goal-scorer, and two points behind Bunker as top career point-scorer.
"We ask Maggie to do a lot of things, both on defense and at forward," said Vizenor. "Give UMD credit, though. They played well, shot the puck well, moved the puck well with short passes and long passes. This weekend, they were better than us.
"You've got to have all your players play their 'A' game. We played hard, but we can play better. It's still a long season, and I'm not worried."
