March 8, 2017 at 4:49 p.m.
Petersen named Northern Edge MVP
Carrico, Oettinger take top offensive, defensive honors
Petersen named Northern Edge MVP
Petersen was one of nine players honored with a team award on the Edge's 15-skater roster. Juniors Kourtney Carrico and Abby Oettinger were named the team's offensive and defensive players of the year.
2016-17 was Petersen's busiest season between the pipes as she logged a 4-14-0 record with a 4.56 goals' against average and a .890 save percentage. She also faced more than 41 shots per game, the most she's faced in her high school career.
"Through four years she's been an exceptional player for the Northern Edge," head coach Kevin Sandstrom said at the banquet. Year in and year out she's answered the call ... When it comes to our season as a whole, I don't know where we would have been without her in net. She really capped off an exception career."
The Edge struggled to score goals this season, tallying only 29 in 19 games this season. Twenty-five of those goals occurred in the team's four victories. Carrico led the team in scoring this year with nine goals and three assists. She scored three of the Edge's four goals in the team's 15 losses after missing her sophomore season with a knee injury.
"She was always able to score no matter who we played, what their caliber was," Sandstrom said. "That has a lot to do with the hard work she puts in between (the end of the season) and November."
Oettinger finished the season with a goal and four assists but developed into the team's top blue liner as the season progressed, unofficially leading the team in blocked shots. Though technically a junior, this was Oettinger's final year with the program as she intends to graduate at the end of the school year. Not surprisingly, Oettinger also won the team's academic excellence award as the graduating player with the highest cumulative grade point average.
"She took a huge step forward," Sandstrom said. "When you look at last year, playing behind (last year's starters) Marie (Sandstrom) and Taylor (Trachte) and not seeing nearly as much ice time as she saw this year, but she took a step forward as a leader on the ice - someone who was willing to do anything for her teammates in any situation. She constantly needed ice after the game because she laid everything our for her team. I'd love to have another year with her because I'd love to see her improve even more."
Freshman Alicia Turunen was named the team's most improved player by the coaching staff. Moved from goalie to forward prior to the start of the season, Turunen finished second on the team in scoring with five goals and six assists and had several other near-misses on scoring chances.
"She took what we were trying to show and applied it in practice and during games," Sandstrom said. "I think she would have shown more if not for being so darn unlucky. As a freshman, earning an all-conference honorable mention is a big thing. We saw it all year long as far as the improvement that went on."
Junior Payton Bunnell and sophomore Gwen Frederickson - the daughters of assistant coaches Brian Bunnell and Chris Frederickson - won the coaches' award. Sandstrom pointed to the players' unselfishness, playing whatever position the coaching staff asked them to. Junior Ashley Adams won the hustle award, Claire Arbuckle won the sportsmanship award and senior Sethany Sass won the team's outstanding character award.
The Edge finished 4-15-0 overall and 2-6 in the Great Northern Conference.
"I don't know if the overall record showed where we would have been, but we had several things happen this season that would have given us a reason to quit, given us a reason to perform at a lesser level - whether is was the whooping cough break or we suffered several concussions this season," Sandstrom said. "Just the overall lack of games won there were a lot of reasons we could have used to perform at a lesser level and we didn't do that."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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