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St. Cloud State University
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Gophers bury SCSU in sweep
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Monday, October 21, 2002
Media Credit: Blair Schlichte
SCSU junior Roxy Stang skates hard to work her way past a tough Gopher defense. St. Cloud lost 10-1 on Friday and 8-0 on Saturday.
Somebody should have called the police this weekend on the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Why? They’re guilty of assault and battery of the Lady Huskies in two games, with final scores of 10-1 and 8-0.
The Gophers burrowed into town Friday night for the first game of the series. Things got off to a quick start, as head coach Jason Lesteberg later said was the best he’s seen in his players play in the first period this year. Unfortunately, good things must come to an end.
With 4:59 left in the period, and Husky defenseman Tina Ciraulo in the penalty box, Gopher forward Kelly Stephens deflected a shot into the goal to put the Gophers up 1-0. Winny Brodt and Ronda Curtin assisted on the power-play goal.
Lightning struck again, or rather Gopher sophomore Kristy Oonincx struck with a nice shot five feet from the top of the crease, to put the Gophers up 2-0. The second period went just as well for the Gophers as the first period did as Oonincx tacked on another goal, with another assist from Brodt to put the Gophers up three.
Minnesota freshman standout, Krissy Wendell, added a fourth goal 3:26 into the period to put the U of M up 4-0. Wendell was assisted on the play by Oonincx. Toward the end of the period the Gophers struck again, with a goal from sophomore center Noelle Sutton. That pretty much put the game out of reach for SCSU.
Lesteberg felt his team’s intensity was high in the first two periods, but said his team gave the Gophers too many chances to do something with the puck.
“The first two periods we played hard,” Lesteberg said. “We just didn’t play smart. When you give an offensive powerhouse like (the Gophers) that many opportunities, they’re going to go win.”
Lesteberg also felt that senior goaltender Laura Gieselman did a good job stopping shots that came her way.
“She didn’t really have a chance on many shots, but I thought she made some nice stops,” he said. “We just weren’t supporting up front. It was like we never saw a puck before.”
The third period began and things didn’t look any brighter for the Huskies. Stephens tacked on her second goal of the nigh with assists from another freshman standout in Natalie Darwitz, and junior defenseman Melissa Coulombe. That put the U of M even farther ahead 6-0. LaToya Clarke netted another goal for the Gophers with an assist coming from Darwitz, her second of the night to add another goal to the Gopher assault.
Oonincx skated virtually untouched into the Husky zone and scored her third goal of the night, putting the visiting Gophers up by eight goals. Less than a minute later, Darwitz pumped another puck into the net assisted by Sutton and Coulombe, to push the lead to 9-0.
But there was still more to come, much to the chagrin of Husky fans everywhere. Wendell added her second goal of the night to put the Gophers up 10-0, which prompted a goaltender change from the SCSU bench. Junior Ellen Brinkman came in and helped subdue the Gophers somewhat, only facing one shot the rest of the game.
With 2:28 left in the period, something finally clicked for the Huskies. In her first game back after a shoulder injury, sophomore Melanie Pudsey pumped in the lone goal for the Huskies. She was assisted on the play by Roxy Stang and Carrie Holldorf. After the game, Lesteberg wasn’t happy with his team’s performance in the third period.
“In the third period we just fell asleep mentally,” Lesteberg said. “We just lost focus and we were like, ‘oh well let’s get them tomorrow.’ If you do that to a team like the Gophers, they’ll come back and hurt you.”
Lesteberg felt that Pudsey played well, but wanted to use her sparingly because he didn’t want her to re-injure the shoulder. With junior defenseman Kobi Kawamoto out due to a broken leg, Lesteberg felt that she could have helped stop some of the Gopher attack.
“Kobi is one of our fast skaters, and by far our fastest backward skater. She would have been able to step it up and stay with those players,” Lesteberg said.
Lesteberg also said that freshman Randie Jelinski had a good game.
“Coach just laid out the facts and said go out there, go out flying, and you’ll keep them on their heels. That’s what we did early in the first period,” Jelinski said.
After, the Huskies had different thoughts on the game.
“I think we came out a little excited,” Pudsey said. “We kind of started running around a little bit, and weren’t really thinking about what we were doing. We have to think and skate at the same time.”
Jelinski said that the team played poorly, and that after the second period the Huskies shouldn’t have given up so easily.
“The third period came and we didn’t help our goalie,” she said. “We can’t do that against any team.”
On Saturday afternoon the Huskies took the trip down I-94 to the new Ridder Arena, Minnesota’s new home. The Gophers continued their weekend assault by beating the Huskies, 8-0. Minnesota outscored the Huskies 18-1 in the series.
“We worked hard the entire game,” Lesteberg said. “They’re a very offensive-minded team, and they’re going to continue to get their chances.”
The Gophers scored two goals in the first, and tacked on three in the second and third periods.
“We had four quality scoring chances in the first period. We had a flurry of shots and nothing would go in for us,” Lesteberg said. “We played in front of almost 3,400 fans, so it was exciting for the players with such a good atmosphere.”
