January 2, 2019 at 12:06 p.m.
Last-second goal derails Northern Edge's OT bid
Last-second goal derails Northern Edge's OT bid
Sydney Schipper completed a hat trick, tipping in a shot from the point as time expired, and the MSO (Stoughton) co-op Icebergs handed the Northern Edge a 4-3 defeat to end the Hodagland Tournament at the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
The loss was the second heartbreaker in a row for the Northern Edge (2-7-0, 2-2-0-0 Great Northern), which forced eventual tournament champion Marquette, Mich. to overtime a day earlier before falling 2-1.
Saturday night's ending couldn't have been more shocking for the Edge. Despite being outshot 64-13 in the contest, the Edge had rallied from two goals down to tie the game 3-3 and were poised to force overtime again when Aeryn Olson threw a shot from the left point toward Turunen as the clock ticked down. Schipper was on the back post and redirected the waist-high shot, which tickled the twine just as the final buzzer began to sound.
"That's the bounce we had. I don't even know who it went off, if they scored it or we scored it. There was a lot of traffic in front of the net," Northern Edge coach Tom Roeser said. "It was fun. You hate losing that game but also, with a short bench like we run, hate going to overtime because we used our legs pretty well tonight."
Turunen was clearly the superior of the two goalies in the contest but, ultimately, too much Iceberg pressure in front of the net led to the Edge's demise. All four Iceberg goals were rebound or redirection-type plays scored just outside of Turunen's goaltenders crease.
Regardless, the Northern Edge found good fortune when it threw the puck on Iceberg goalie Abby Seybold. Down 3-1 in the second period, Jade Forster began the Northern Edge rally when she sent a bouncing puck from the blue line past Seybold at the 12:42 mark.
That's the way the score remained until the 5:19 mark of the third when Kailey Powell, playing in her first game of the season, gained control of a loose puck in the slot and fired a one-timer past Seybold to tie the game.
"That was our goal, put pucks to the net and shoot them hard," Roeser said. "Jade had a bouncer. Those are tough for any goalie, regardless of what their skill level is. Kailey got her first varsity goal in her first game back. She's always making a big impact. I was proud of the girls.
"That could have been a 3-0, 4-0 game, but we put some pucks in the net tonight. We put a lot of pressure on our goalie, but we had to go score some goals and came back to tie it. I was pretty happy with that."
The Edge struck first in the contest on a Madi Losch power play goal 4:24 into the contest before the Icebergs' heavy pressure took over. Izzy Newton scored on a rebound after Turunen juggled an initial shot by Paige Nelson, tying the game at the 9:03 mark of the first. Schipper scored the first of her three goals 1 minute, 10 seconds later on a play in front of the Edge net as MSO took a 2-1 lead.
Schipper scored in a similar fashion 2:22 into the second.
"We changed our D-zone in the second and third and didn't give them the quality shots," Roeser said. "(Turunen) still made some excellent saves, but we didn't give them the quality shots. We tried to take away their points a little more. I've never done this before, but we went into a little more man-to-man coverage to try to eliminate some confusion that some of the girls have when they're out there and I think that worked better for us."
The Northern Edge finished fifth in its six-team tournament, finishing ahead of only Medford, which also went winless in the tournament. The Edge scored a bonus point over the Raiders by pushing their Friday game against Marquette to overtime.
Though the Edge did not win any games over the weekend, and has now dropped four straight overall, Roeser said he hopes the way the team played against Marquette and MSO will yield some confidence heading into the new year.
"That team we just played (MSO) is no slouch," he said. "They played Viroqua tight, a one-goal game. The Marquette game, that was a little more evenly matched, skill-wise, on the bench. I just hope they gained some confidence."
The Edge got a needed break after games on three consecutive days.
The team returns to action Jan. 7 against Northland Pines at the Langlade County Multi-Purpose Building in Antigo.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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