December 29, 2018 at 3:41 p.m.
Edge falls to Marquette in OT in Day 2 of Hodagland
Edge falls to Marquette in OT in Day 2 of Hodagland
Heidi Meglathery scored 2 minutes, 36 seconds into overtime as the Marquette, Michigan girls' junior hockey team defeated the Northern Edge 2-1 Friday at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
Shots were almost dead even in the contest, 36-31 in favor of Marquette. That was a far cry from the 48-9 shot disparity the Edge faced a night early in a 4-0 loss to the Lakeshore (Cedarburg) co-op, but it wasn't enough to secure a win.
"We attacked the puck better," Northern Edge coach Tom Roeser said. "We probably have about 15 shots we'd want back because we missed the net wide on a few of them. Early in the game we had two inside pipes that didn't go our way but, overall, I was much better with how we played."
Marquette caught the Edge in the midst of some personnel confusion midway through the five-minute overtime session. A forward went on for a defender during a line change, leaving the Edge with four forwards and one defender. The team was trying to get the correct personnel on the ice when Marquette took the offensive zone and pressured goalie Alicia Turunen. Meglathery was able to poke home a rebound at the top of the crease off an initial shot by Kali Dennis.
"We had a girl that wanted to be on the ice so bad she went over the boards," Roeser said of the mixup. "I guess I can't blame her for that. Unfortunately, we didn't have the right personnel out there and we ended up paying for that. Typically Alicia stops that shot, too. It was just an unfortunate situation. It was right on her and it five-holed her. She's typically pretty solid on that, but I guess we can't dwell on it too much."
The Edge played even with Marquette much of the first period, but Marquette took advantage of a Madi Losch tripping penalty as Lyndsey Lake scored on a shot off the ensuing faceoff just four seconds into Marquette's power play.
"We didn't step on the shooter. That was on us. We screened (Turunen) on that one," Roeser said.
The Edge was unable to cash in on a couple of chances, including a 5-on-3 power play in the second period, but drew even at the 4:47 mark of the third as Losch went end-to-end for a short-handed goal.
"They gave her some room all day and she kind of went back to some of the things she's been doing, which is skating into traffic. On that one she decided to go wide. She's got a heck of a shot," Roeser said.
Turunen stopped more than 90 percent of the shots she faced in a losing effort, turning aside 34 of the 36 shots she faced Friday. Her Marquette counterpart, Tara Mankee, made 30 saves on 31 chances.
"Give their goalie credit, she stopped a lot of nice shots," Roeser said.
Though Marquette put 36 shots on Turunen, Roeser said he was happy that his team started to take away looks from the points and the high slot.
"That was a topic between periods our wings taking lanes away from shooters. We actually did have players who did that well. Brooke (Beauchaine) was one of them," he said. "She's learning that it's not always about the puck going off your shin pads, but you're taking that lane away and they're shooting pucks wide. She was doing that quite a bit and I was impressed by that."
Skills competition
Losch and Turunen took home honors during the annual Hodagland Skills Competition held Friday afternoon. Losch took first place in the hardest shot competition, as well as the obstacle course. Turunen won the goalie shootout competition, making the most saves of the six goalies in the competition in a head-to-head shootout against skaters from the other teams in the field.
Up next
The Edge (2-6-0, 2-2-0-0 Great Northern) concluded the Hodagland tournament Saturday afternoon against the MSO (Stoughton) co-op, in a game that concluded after deadline. The team returns to action Jan. 7 hosting Northland Pines in Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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