February 6, 2017 at 3:33 p.m.
Northern Edge blanked by Lakeland/Tomahawk 3-0
Northern Edge blanked by Lakeland/Tomahawk 3-0
The Northern Edge (4-11-0, 2-4-0 Great Northern) was heavily outshot in the contest, but the 31-11 shot disparity was much closer than it was when the teams opened the season against each other all the way back on Nov. 21 - also a 3-0 win for the T-Birds in Minocqua.
"I think Erin Sparks made big saves when she had to," Edge coach Kevin Sandstrom said. "I think (Northern Edge goalie) Shea Petersen made some incredible saves as well. Defensively, you look at we're allowing 48 shots the first time we play them. We come back and we only allow 31, a huge improvement. Offensively, our ability to spread three lines and get the same quality of production out of all three lines was big."
The T-Birds scored twice in the first period and popped home one more late in the third after most of the second period, and much of the third, were played to a virtual stalemate.
Two bugaboos the Edge wanted to avoid in the contest came back to bite the team, however. Lakeland/Tomahawk cashed in on a short-handed goal and all three of the T-Birds scores came on shots from close range.
The first came 4:24 into the first as Makayla Fultz positioned herself on the back door and was there for a rebound when an Ally Pairolero blast from the right point bounced of Petersen's chest. Roughly five minutes later the T-Birds (12-8-1, 3-3-0 Great Northern) doubled their lead when Maggie Wohlleber stole a puck in the right corner, walked the end line and put a second chance past Petersen with three second left on a Northern Edge power play.
"Shorties (short-handed goals), it's a lack of effort. It's a lack of hustle," Sandstrom said. "And those players, outside of basically that one power play, there was no lack of effort or hustle here tonight. We made it tough for Lakeland."
Lakeland tacked on an insurance goal with 2:56 second remaining as Jolie Quamme poked home a loose puck in a mad scramble in front of the Edge net.
"We did pretty well in the defensive zone clearing out the front of the net and, again, you look at the couple goals the scored, there they are again right in that area," Sandstrom said.
The Edge had a few scoring chances throughout the game. Sparks had to make three saves in short succession midway through the second and the Edge couldn't convert a 2-on-1 breakaway with Jade Forster and Alicia Turunen with under seven minutes to play in the third.
"We were really hoping Jade would have slid it back to Alicia," Sandstrom said. "It looked like Erin keyed so hard on Jade shooting that puck and she shot it right into here, where I think if Jade was able to just slide it back over, Alicia's tapping it into and empty net and we're looking at a 2-1 game and a totally different ending."
Though the Edge was shutout for the seventh time this season, Sandstrom said some of the offensive improvements made earlier in the week in back-to-back wins over Medford carried over into Saturday's contest.
"Spreading our ability through three lines and two defensive pairs has really worked well," he said. "It carried over from doing that against Medford into tonight and I think the defense, especially, the combinations we had in Gwen (Frederickson) and Ellen (Padgett), and Abby (Oettinger) and Gracie (Lenzner), worked exceptionally well together. That's what the key was. We have four solid defensemen and the way they work with their partner especially showed here tonight."
The Edge will see Lakeland/Tomahawk for a third time this coming Friday at SARA Park in Tomahawk. Before that, the team will hold its regular season home finale against Northland Pines Tuesday night at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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