It was a weekend defined by offensive aggression and scrappy play for the Idaho women’s club hockey team, as the Vandals went 2-2 in tournament competition to earn a second place finish in the Chix with Stix tournament in McCall.
The Vandals (5-4 spring season) played in the upper division of the tournament, facing club teams from across the region. Games ran Friday through Sunday at the Manchester Ice Rink and Events Center in the 12th annual competition.
Idaho opened the tournament against the Boise Wildfire Friday night, coming away with a convincing 5-1 victory with goals from five different players.
What began as a back-and-forth game quickly shifted as the Vandals scored early in the first period. Left wing Anna Lau found the back of the net off an assist from center Keanna Hawk.
The Vandals then experienced a scoring drought, during which Boise’s Kari Morlock scored a breakaway goal after finding a gap in the Idaho defense.
The goal marked the only offensive production for the Wildfire on the night.
Freshman Katie Sholty scored the second goal for Idaho with six minutes left in the second period, which sparked an aggressive trend that would carry the Vandals to the final buzzer.
“We were pretty stressed out because we were like, ‘Alright, super tight game, we’re definitely not used to this,’” Sholty said.
The Wildfire’s goaltender worked constantly as the Vandals controlled the puck for the remainder of the game.
Idaho’s Haley Smith scored before the buzzer to end the second period on a high note. Both Maurgan Scott and Alena Cenis contributed goals in the third period.
Cenis said playing on a regulation-sized rink was key in the victory. The junior said the Vandals typically practice at the Palouse Ice Rink, which is three-fourths official size.
“The open space has given us more room to do more passing instead of getting too exhausted skating coast to coast,” Cenis said.
The Vandals also came away with a commanding win over the McCall Dangle Saturday morning.
The Vandals earned a goal one minute into the first period on a breakaway from Hawk to set the tone for a 4-1 victory.
“It’s very important to get the first goal because it sets the tempo of the game,” Hawk said.
Two goals from team captain Lizzie Jossie and one other from Cenis proved too much for the McCall, whose only goal came from Deb Newstadt in the closing moments of the second period.
“McCall wasn’t very spread out, which allowed us to find open areas of ice to attack,” said Hawk.
The junior said the team had not yet competed in a hard-hitting matchup like they did Saturday.
“Sometimes scrappy is all you’ve got when you’re tired,” she said.
Fatigue seemed to play a role in Idaho’s third game Saturday night, as the Vandals fell 4-1 to the Utah-based Provo Blades.
“After the first day we kind of start to get sore and slow down,” Jossie said. “You have big bruises – I have a big blister on my foot. So you’re just worn out.”
Jossie said Provo was the best team the Vandals played this season. She said the Blades have been a consistently difficult opponent over the years.
The Vandals had several scoring opportunities throughout the game, but had difficultly getting it past the Blades’ first line of defense, let alone Provo’s goalie.
“I think it’s mostly us not looking up, just rushing through the play, not trying to find open lanes,” Jossie said. “It’s something to work on.”
Lau scored the lone goal for the Vandals with one minute left in the game.
Despite the loss, Idaho’s 2-1 tournament record earned the team an automatic berth in Sunday’s upper-division championship. The Vandals faced the undefeated Blades again, resulting in a similar outcome.
Idaho fell 3-0 to Provo to place second in the Chix with Stix tournament.
The Blades controlled the pace of the game from the start, forcing the Vandals to spend the majority of the matchup on their end of the rink attempting to defend the net.
“(Provo) is just big and they get in your way and we couldn’t get inside to cause any chaos in front of their net,” said Idaho goalie Liz Larson, who tallied over a dozen saves in the championship game. “That’s what they did well, and we kind of needed to take a page out of their book and do that, but we didn’t.”
Idaho defenseman Brianna Smith was called for tripping and sent to the penalty box in the closing minutes of the matchup. While the team did earn a penalty kill during her time off the ice, Smith said it was not an ideal time to be taken from the game – especially for a call she said was invalid.
“I had all puck, so it shouldn’t have been called,” Smith said. “We really needed all our players out there. I got a little frustrated, but sitting in the box I guess calmed me down a little bit.”
Regardless of the loss and the penalty controversy, the Vandals made the return trip to Moscow in high spirits.
The team was presented with the Silver Stick trophy following the game, which the entire roster then signed.
“I’m super excited about the Silver Stick,” Jossie said. “We’re all going sign it. It’s going be great.”
The Vandals will travel to Seattle to face the University of Washington April 9-10.
Lyndsie Kiebert can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lyndsie_kiebert