USM Co-op Girls Hockey Team Loses Opener

Playing the number one ranked team can be a daunting task.  That task fell to the University School co-op girls ice hockey team at USM Saturday afternoon when the Wildcats took on the pre-season favorite, the Central Wisconsin Storm of Mosinee, in the opening game of the 2011-2012 season.  The Storm lived up to its ranking by defeating USM 5-2.

The Storm scored the first period’s only goal.  Defending the point in the Storm’s zone, freshman Kelly Knetter blocked a USM defensman’s shot.  The puck skipped into the neutral zone and Knetter raced past the USM defensemen to get it. She skated into the USM zone on a breakaway, pulled USM’s sophomore goalkeeper Heidi Golembiewski to her right, then slid the puck past the edge of Golembiewski’s right skate at 14:05.

The Storm took a two-goal lead early in the second period.  In the USM zone, Knetter passed the puck to sophomore Megan Marlowe at the right point.  Marlowe slid the puck into the slot to junior Emilee Mytinger who shoveled toward the goal.  The puck hit a skate and bounced into the net at 1:05.

USM rallied and scored its first goal of the season just over a minute later.  In the USM end, senior Rebecca Hart passed the puck to senior Abby Berman who chipped it out of the zone along the right side.  Junior Liz Curley chased down the Storm defender who had retreated with the puck behind the Storm’s net. Curley tied the defender up and USM junior Abby Leitschuh came in and pulled the puck free.  She slipped it to Curley who turned and fired a pass to Berman who was all-alone in the slot.  Berman blazed a wrist shot past the Storm’s senior goalie Kristine Fonti at 2:10.

USM tied the game later in the second period. Senior Sally James snared the puck along the left boards in the neutral zone and knocked it forward to freshman Nina Andersen.  Like a jet, Andersen sped into the Storm zone.  She went below the goal line then turned and fed the puck to senior Megan Bailey in the circle.  Bailey blasted a shot into the upper corner of the net at 11:18.

Before the second period was over, however, the Storm had regained the lead.  Off a face-off in USM’s zone, senior Cassidy Daley drew the puck back to junior Claire Poirier at the top of the circle. Poirier skated it to the sideboards and ripped a shot on net.  The puck hit a skate and bounded in at 14:22.

The Storm added to more goals in the third period.  The first came at 12:00 when Sarah Poirier took a pass from Kyle Gazzolo behind the net and zipped the puck out front to Myranda Hayes.  Hayes gunned a shot into the net to make the score 4-2.

The Storm scored its final goal at 15:39. Putting pressure on a USM defensman trying to skate the puck out the USM zone, Knetter stripped the puck away and headed deeper into the zone.  She shot it as Sarah Poirier rushed to the net, and Poirier rapped in the rebound.

The Storm is now 1-0 and USM is 0-1.  The Wildcats’ next game is against the Bay Area Ice Bears at 1:00 p.m. on Friday in a Thanksgiving tournament in Mosinee.