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Women's hockey team fighting for Final Five
SCSU still holding out hope that they can take the fifth and final spot in the WCHA standings to reach Final Five.
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Kobi Kawamoto
Coming out of last weekend's series against WCHA rival Bemidji State University, the SCSU women's hockey team gained no ground in the race for the final five teams in the conference.
In a series in what SCSU head coach Jason Lesteberg later called, "a weekend of missed opportunities," the Huskies managed to score only two goals during the weekend while giving up nine.
Senior captain Kobi Kawamoto seemed to echo her coach's sentiments saying that her team played well, they just didn't put their chances to good use.
"I'd say during the weekend, we played five-and-a-half good periods," she said. "For that half period things didn't go well. That's what killed us. We outworked them and outshot them. The bounces aren't going our way, we just can't put the puck in the net."
With the two losses the Huskies remain in sixth place, just four points behind Ohio State University for the fifth and final spot.
The Huskies have three big series against WCHA opponents the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Wisconsin and Minnesota State, Mankato coming down the final stretch of the last part of the season, but aren't looking past the University of North Dakota this weekend.
"We need to play well this weekend to get some momentum going into the series against UMD," Lesteberg said. "We can't overlook North Dakota because they're a nonconference opponent. Every game is a big game for us."
Lesteberg said that he told his team they still controlled their own destiny and that if they win the rest of their conference games they'll make the playoffs.
"We just have to take it one game at a time and go from there," he said.
Lesteberg also commented that he was working with his players on their individual skills to help generate production from all aspects of their game.
"We need to get better with the puck, we had a lot of two-on-ones this past weekend," he said. "We tried moving the puck across the slot to a wide open person, which would have been a goal. We just couldn't get the puck there."
Kawamoto agreed, saying it was the "little things" that are essential to hockey that need to be worked on.
"We need to just help each other out on the ice," she said. "We tried so many different things, it just seems like we haven't been clicking at the right times."
Lesteberg also said that his team needed to capitalize on their opportunities, saying in last weekend's series the scoring opportunities were the same for both teams, BSU just reached the back of the net more.
"We broke down the game film, saw how many scoring chances they had, and saw we had just as many as they did," he said. "Their's went in, ours didn't."
Kawamoto said she felt she had a little bit to do with missed scoring chances during the weekend.
"I felt I should have put away a few this weekend." she said. "I just feel I haven't really had that scoring edge I had my freshman year, or even last year."
The scoring drought for SCSU doesn't start or end with Kawamoto. Both Kawamoto and Lesteberg are right when they say the team has missed scoring opportunities. This year's top five goal scorers have combined for 29 goals. Last year's leading scorer, Roxy Stang, had 23.
The Huskies rank last in the conference in goals scored with 40. The U of M and UMD are tops in the WCHA with 106 and 143 goals scored, respectively. The Gophers Krissy Wendell leads the team with 21. UMD's Jenny Potter leads the Bulldogs with 25.
Going into this weekend against UND, the edge looks to be on the Huskies side. The Huskies took a two-game sweep during the holiday break, besting the Fighting Sioux 4-2 and 2-0. The weekend saw sophomore forward Carrie Holldorf tap UND for five points during the sweep to lead to WCHA Player of the Week honors.
Kawamoto is telling her teammates to keep their heads up and give their all for the remainder of the schedule.
"I've told them, 'where there's a will, there's a way,'" she said. "We've made it harder for ourselves, but we'll get more out of it when we make the Final Five. Everyone's kind of down, but you know when we win we'll all be happy campers again."
The 7-17-0 Huskies kick off their six- game homestand against UND this weekend at the National Hockey Center. Friday's start is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. The puck for Saturday's game is scheduled to drop at 2:05 p.m.
