March 1, 2021 at 8:13 a.m.
Team review: Northern Edge girls' hockey
Northern Edge faced plenty of obstacles in tough 2020-21 campaign
Team review: Northern Edge girls' hockey
Both seasons ended in similar fashion, with a road playoff loss to Bay Area in the first round of the WIAA tournament. But this year it was a 14-2 defeat in the playoffs, as opposed to a 4-1 loss a season ago.
A break due to a positive COVID-19 case within the team paused team activities over the Christmas break, and the Edge was only 1-9 once it returned from that break.
Here are five key storylines from the season.
Spurts of brilliance
There were some highlights for the Edge this season. The team dominated Medford, sweeping the three-game series from the Raiders by a cumulative score of 25-3. The shot differential was a whopping 160-19 for the Edge in the series.
The team's only other win came Dec. 12 at home against the Badger Lightning, a 3-2 win in which the Edge was without its starting goalie, Ellie Stank, and its leading scorer, Kate Vizanko, and still found a way to win.
"We held on," coach Tom Roeser said. "We're a little bit short-handed. We missed Kate's offensive presence, but it was nice to get out of here with a win and we've got a big week ahead of us."
Though the Edge dropped 10 of their final 11 games on the season, there were some spurts of strong play along the way.
The Edge outshot Northland Pines in a 6-0 loss Jan. 11 and had strong spurts against Wisconsin Valley Union, Badger and Northland Pines later in the year.
The trouble, ultimately, was an inability to put three strong periods together on most nights. The Edge had 11 periods in 17 games this season in which they allowed four or more goals, and another 10 period in which they allowed three goals.
"Most of the games we play, we haven't put three real good periods together," Roeser said after a 6-0 loss at Wisconsin Valley Union Jan. 15. "If you look at all our scoresheets, it shows where we're struggling. Second period was our bad period tonight and Monday night (against Northland Pines) it was our strong period. I don't think it's a matter of switching ends of the ice or anything like that, it's just we take a period off."
Goalie hole
Ultimately, the difference between last year's 13-9 record and this year's 4-13 mark boiled down to inexperience in goal.
Anna Maulson, the presumptive starter after backing up Alicia Turunen last season, opted not to go out for the team this year, leaving the Edge shockingly thin at the position. The Edge ended up playing three goalies this season, none of whom had any varsity goaltending experience prior to the season.
The team's first option was Antigo sophomore Ellie Stank. She ended up playing in 12 games for the Edge, going 2-9-0 with a 7.31 goals against average and a .742 save percentage. But Stank was just settling into her new position when she developed a knee injury that lingered throughout the season.
When Stank first went down, the team turned to sophomore Kristina Kunelius in goal. She made four starts going 2-2 with a 3.75 goals against average and a .833 save percentage. But Kunelius was also hurt when Stank went down again toward the end of the season. Freshman Hannah Mueller stepped in, going 1-2-0 with a 7.29 goal against average and a .750 saver percentage.
"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."
Front line flash
A trio of Lakeland seniors formed the top offensive line for the Edge, and provided the team with out of its scoring punch this season. Kate Vizanko, Izzy Boyer and Callie Johnson has 19, 18 and 18 points, respectively, this year - far and away the three leaders on the team.
Vizanko had a team-high 10 goals, while Boyer and Johnson each netted six goals. Vizanko and Boyer were two of the Edge's top scorers with the Edge last year and were reunited with Johnson, who missed Lakeland's first season as part of the Edge co-op in 2019-20 while studying abroad
COVID break
The Edge's season was interrupted in late December after one team member tested positive for COVID-19. It marked the first time during the pandemic that a Rhinelander varsity team had to halt activities due to a positive case within the team.
Timing-wise, the pause could not have come at much more of a convenient time for the Northern Edge. The team lost only one game due to the pause, a game against Bay Area Dec. 22. A natural break in the schedule did not have the team playing again until Jan. 11 against Northland Pines.
The Edge came out strong in that game, trailing only 2-0 through two periods before eventually falling to the Eagles, 6-0.
"The way they came out, I think they missed it too. I was pretty happy with the way they came out," Roeser said.
What's next
The Edge's depth will take a hit next year, especially at forward where the top line of Boyer, Vizanko and Johnson will graduate. Also gone will be forwards Evie LeVeque, Alexis Herkdle and Bailey Novy, along with defender Emily Kassler.
Those seven accounted for a whopping 73.7% of the team's scoring this year (70 out of 95 total points).
Junior-to-be Maddi Roeser will be the team's top returning scorer, with three goals and three assists this season. Kassidee Linssen, Mackenzie Wissbroecker, Wyndi Saari, Maria Gironella and Caitlyn Fesnick all are slated to return after scoring multiple points for the Edge this season.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.