March 14, 2018 at 12:49 p.m.
Turunen, Losch, Bunnell named Northern Edge MVPs
Turunen, Losch, Bunnell named Northern Edge MVPs
All three players - Alicia Turunen, Madi Losch and Payton Bunnell - received most valuable player honors during the Northern Edge's team banquet Sunday at the Antigo VFW Hall.
In all nine of the Northern Edge's 15 players went home with some sort of an award voted on by the coaching staff as the team put a cap on a 7-16-1 campaign - a three-win improvement from the previous season.
Turunen, a sophomore from Antigo, received the team's overall MVP award. Losch, a sophomore from Rhinelander, was the team's defensive MVP and Bunnell, a senior from Antigo was the team's offensive MVP.
After recording two goals and an assist in the team's season-opening loss to Lakeland/Tomahawk, Turunen was switched from forward to goalie in a move that stuck throughout the season.
Turunen posted a 6-14-1 record between the pipes for the Edge this season with a .900 save percentage, a 3.45 goals against average and three shutouts. The 610 shots she faced over the course of the season were the eighth-most in the state - and that was despite not playing in net for three of the Edge's 24 games this season.
"She played at an outstanding level all season long on numerous occasions. She really gave us the ability to be as competitive as we were," coach Kevin Sandstrom said during the banquet.
Another sophomore, Losch, burst on to the scene this year after playing bantams for the Rhinelander Ice Association as a freshman. Losch finished with a team-best 17 goals on the season despite getting moved back to the blue line early on in the campaign.
"She started out in a forward position thinking that we'd need her to score a lot of goals," Sandstrom explained. "Then, slowly, we realized that she's 10 times more valuable stopping the other team from having breakaway chances."
While Losch led the team in goals, Bunnell led the team in overall points. She had 10 goals on the season to go along with a team-best 15 assists.
"She wanted to move the puck around and get everyone involved. She did that," Sandstrom said. "She was an outstanding penalty killer as a forward, was a key member of our power play and lead our team in scoring."
All three were unanimous first-team all-Great Northern Conference selections this year.
The team handed out several other awards during the course of the banquet. Freshman Evelyn LeVeque was named the team's most improved player, senior Gracie Lenzner won the team's Ms. Hustle award, senior Claire Arbuckle won the sportsmanship award, seniors Kourtney Carrico and Ellen Padgett each were presented coaches awards and senior Ashley Adams won the team's academic excellence award, carrying a cumulative GPA of 4.43.
Bunnell presented with Hobey Baker Award
In addition to the team awards, the Northern Edge presented Bunnell with the Hobey Baker High School Character Award. High school boys and girls hockey teams in Wisconsin are allowed to select one senior who demonstrates exemplary character and sportsmanship throughout his or her high school career.
"Not only on, but off the ice, she's demonstrated - in the three years that I've coached her - exemplary character in the classroom, in the community, off the ice, on the ice, against the opponent, with coaches, with teammates," Sandstrom said. "I don't think you could find a more desiring person for this award."
Uncertain future
Toward the end of Sunday's banquet, Sandstrom took time to address a looming issue for the team - a lack of numbers for the upcoming 2018-19 season - that leaves the future and construction of the co-op in the future up in the air.
The Edge, which played with a roster of 15 skaters this season, will graduate six players and is only slated to pick up one incoming freshman, leaving the roster perilously thin for next year.
"It's hard. Is it possible? Sure. Is it convenient or ideal? Absolutely not. Do you risk not being able to play if one or two players should go down with injury? Yes," Sandstrom said of the looming numbers crunch. "In order to keep the co-op in its current form with Rhinelander and Antigo, we're probably going to need 3-to-5 players - and that's the absolute minimum. We want a lot more than that."
Sandstrom encouraged each of the players to try to recruit classmates at Rhinelander and Antigo high schools to give hockey a try and said he has a camp in the works for early April at the Rhinelander Ice Arena to try to bring in new players, while also working with the roster of returning skaters.
A number of solutions have been discussed, including trying to bring a different school into the co-op, recruiting from within the framework of the current co-op or merging with another team - the Lakeland/Tomahawk co-op being the most discussed possibility.
Sandstrom described the latter as a method of last resort and vowed to try to keep the current Northern Edge co-op in tact.
"If the two (teams) become one, that eliminates 20 roster spots. That's the way that I look at it. Across the state you see teams eliminating one team to become a (bigger) unit. Every time a team's eliminated, it eliminates 20 chances for girls to play hockey. My idea would be for us to do what we can to not have that happen," he said.
Rhinelander High School activities director Brain Paulson said a number of options, including a co-op with Lakeland/Tomahawk have been discussed, but there has been no formal proposal to merge the two programs. He said he has been in contact with WIAA regarding the co-op's situation.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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