February 4, 2021 at 8:22 a.m.
Edge falls to Northland Pines in regular season finale
Edge falls to Northland Pines in regular season finale
The Edge (4-12-0), ultimately, could not contain Northland Pines' front line of Grace Wittkopf, Madison Stebbeds and Allie Kieffer. The three played a role in all seven goals. Wittkopf scored four by herself and the trio totaled 11 points on the night.
Northern Edge coach Tom Roeser said, despite the outcome, facing Northland Pines was good preparation for tonight, when it travels to Green Bay to take on the Bay Area Ice Bears in the first round of the WIAA tournament.
"Pines' top players, I think, they're better than Bay Area," he said. "They're a good core of girls that can really move the puck. It was good for us. They've got some strong girls. We played a little physical. They played a little physical and I'd like to see us even get more physical. We don't want to go on the kill, but we've got to take the boards away and not let them walk through us. I'm hoping it's going to be a good matchup on Friday."
Despite the final score, the Edge was competitive with the Eagles from a possession and shots standpoint. The Edge outshot Pines 10-5 in the first period, and was still up 15-14 in shots after two periods, but ran out of gas against a deeper Eagles' squad in the third. The Edge was outshot 8-1 in the final frame.
"I think we played well. Pines played three lines, so it kept some of their players fresh," Roeser said. "We're not healthy enough to do that quite yet, but we're hoping to maybe get there (Friday night), but I thought it was pretty good back-and-forth hockey."
"I thought we had a very good first period. We outshot them 2-to-1," Roeser continued. "I think we passed up a few shots, too. I think we could have added to that. That's kind of been the story of our season, not letting 'er rip, trying to get in a little better position. But their goalie (Ashlynn Boxrucker) was doing a good job taking angles away. I think our girls wanted to get a little closer and pick a corner, but it didn't happen."
Despite the shot count in the first, the Edge was down 2-0. Haley Krznarich scored 2:58 into the contest for the Eagles and Wittkopf added her first goal of the night at the 4:13 mark.
Pines took control on special teams late in the second period. Stebbeds scored on the power play at the 10:16 mark and Wittkopf added two short-handed goals 15 seconds apart later in the period as the Eagles took a 5-0 lead following two periods.
Wittkopf scored again 34 seconds into the third and Allie Kieffer added a tally at the 3:46 mark to round out the scoring.
Freshman Hannah Mueller, making her third start of emergency goaltending duty is place of Ellie Stank (knee), made 15 saves in defeat. Kristina Kunelius, who filled in earlier in the season after Stank was originally injured, was also a scratch from Monday night's contest.
"All these girls that have stepped up and played, I've got to give them a lot a credit," Roeser said. "It's not an easy position. Hannah only had a couple practices and we threw her in for three games right away. We're trying to get Ellie healthy for Friday so we're hoping she can get between the pipes."
The Edge and Bay Area will skate at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the Cornerstone Community Center in Ashwaubenon in the first round of the WIAA playoffs. The two teams met Jan. 23, with Bay Area skating away with a 9-1 victory.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.