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St. Cloud State University
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Women's hockey awaits top-ranked Gophers
By Jay Corn
Published:
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Ellen Brinkman
Goaltending is one of the most valued commodities a hockey team can have.
Keeping the goals against average down gives the offense a better chance of providing the firepower needed to win a given game. For the SCSU women's hockey team, an abundance of quality goaltenders on the roster presents head coach Jason Lesterberg with a good problem to deal with. All three goalies (senior Ellen Brinkman, sophomore Brie Anderson and first- year Lauri St. Jacques) have seen significant playing time so far this season, showing how Lesterberg has been running what some would call ongoing auditions.
"We're still in the stage of evaluating our goalies right now," Lesterberg said. "If you look at the statistics, Ellen (Brinkman) has seen the most time, and as a senior she has the experience ... she'll be starting Friday against the U of M."
The Huskies will need goaltending to step up this weekend heading to Minneapolis to play the University of Minnesota, who are led by U.S. Olympians Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell. With the U of M scoring at least three goals in every game so far this season, whoever is in the net for SCSU can expect to be tested often by the red hot Gopher offense.
The two-game series will be the team's first WCHA match-up of the season, and the Huskies have their work cut out for them as they prepare to play the the top-ranked team in the nation. The U of M is off to a fast start so far this season, sporting a 4-0 record that has cemented their standing as the top team in the country. With three of their victories against WCHA opponents, the Gophers are beginning to pull away from the pack, in line with most preseason predictions.
"We're really going to focus on the first two lines, especially Wendell and Darwtiz," said senior Leanne Perrin. "Even though they are Olympians, we don't want to be intimidated by them. We know they're highly skilled, but if we play smart as a team we shouldn't get outsmarted by them."
According to Perrin, one concentration going into the weekend is to step up the level of physical play. In theory, playing more physically will slow down the potent Gopher offense, and in conjunction with deploying a tight defensive scheme, will hold chances at the net to a minimum.
In addition, the Huskies have been plagued by an often inconsistent penalty killing unit. SCSU has allowed an astronomical eight power play goals through four games and penalty killing is a big concern going into a series against a team that leads the nation in power play goals with six.
"As far as the penalty killing, we can't reflect on the negative stuff, we just have to regroup and stay focused," said senior Roxanne Stang.
"I'm sure we'll really be working on that this week in practice, and I'm not really concerned about it being a problem this weekend."
After losing sophomore Calise Johnson for at least three weeks due to injury, Lesterberg has moved Kelly Stewart from defense to forward. Stewart has had a strong season thus far, and is tied for third on the team with three points through four games.
"Moving Kelly to the forward spot really gives us better depth up front," Lesterberg said. "It gives us the ability to rotate six defenseman, which keeps everyone fresh and allows us to play more physical defensive game."
Adding to her growing list of accolades, sophomore Natalie Darwitz earned player of the week honors for her performance against No. 6 Wisconsin last week. In the two games against the Badgers, Darwitz tallied five points, three of which came on power-plays. As far as the SCSU squad is concerned, this has little to do with them, and all seem confident that at least one win this weekend is very possible.
"For sure this is an important point in the season for us," Perrin said. "They're the number one ranked team in the country, and we're going to be huge underdogs. We have to respect the quality players over there, but we can't be intimidated or allow them to execute their game plan."
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