January 13, 2023 at 7:34 a.m.
Northern Edge downs Pines again
Northern Edge downs Pines again
Taylor Heleniak recorded a hat trick and Maria Gironella scored the two other goals as the Edge skated to a 5-2 win over the Eagles at the Eagle River Sports Arena.
The Edge (3-7-0) never trailed in the contest and outshot the Eagles 46-17.
"We had a lot of different players putting pucks on net, which was good," Edge coach Tom Roeser said. "We left some rebounds out there we'd like to have back but that was probably, top to bottom, the most complete game we've played this year."
A trio of Lakeland upperclassmen led the way Monday night for a co-op that also includes Rhinelander, Antigo, Wabeno and Three Lakes high schools. Heleniak, a junior, scored goals No. 14, 15 and 16 on the season. Gironella, a senior, had her second and third goals of the year while senior Kristiina Kunelius made 15 saves in her second start in goal on the season.
The Edge had a 3-0 lead early in the second period. Heleniak got the scoring 8:14 into the first as she took a pass from Rhinelander sophomore Mia Tulowitzky and stuffed the puck past Pines' goalie Jenna Uhrine in front of the crease for a power play goal.
Gironella then scored back-to-back goals early in the second. She fired a loose puck from the top of the right faceoff circle past Uhrine on the power play 1:17 into the period and then scored again just 1 minute, 15 seconds later on a shot from the left point that found its way past a screened Uhrine. Heleniak and Rhinelander senior Maddi Roeser were credited with the assists.
While counted on as one of the team's top defenders, coach Roeser said Gironella displayed the skill that makes her an offensive threat.
"When she needed to, she'd go coast-to-coast and take the zone for us," he said. "She's just got speed straight up and down the ice that teams struggle with."
Heleniak then answered both times after Pines cut the lead down to two goals. Hailey Krznarich scored on a rebound on the power play at the 14:15 mark of the second as the Edge took a 3-1 lead through 34 minutes. Heleniak canceled out that goal, scoring a rebound 2:01 into the third.
Mallory Schmidt, Northland Pines' leading scorer, recorded her 10th goal of the season at the 6:18 mark of the third, splitting defenders and firing a high shot past Kunelius to make it 4-2. Heleniak scored another rebound goal with 2:12 remaining to erase any thoughts of a Pines comeback.
Rhinelander junior Emma Chiamulera and Rhinelander sophomore Emalee Detienne had the assists on both of Heleniak's third-period goals.
Coach Roeser said the Edge did a better job containing Schmidt than they did in the first contest, when she scored twice in a four-goal third period of a game the Edge won 10-4 Dec. 5 in Rhinelander.
"We let Mallory Schmidt get loose a couple times. Luckily we didn't pay for it too badly," he said. "When our defensemen started turning and pushing her wide, that's when we were most effective on her, rather than trying to take the rush going backwards. I thought we did that pretty well."
Meanwhile Kunelius showed improvement in her second game in goal, recording her first win since the 2020-21 season.
"She settled in after the first (period)," coach Roeser said. "She started going down on the long shots. Those are hard to handle for a lot of goalies. You don't know what's going to happen, how it's going to bounce. After that she started to gain a little confidence and she stopped some hard, high shots. We're happy with her, the way she's progressing."
The Edge's three wins have all come against sectional opponents. With another game against a sectional opponent coming tonight against Medford in Antigo, plus a couple of games against common opponents next week against Arrowhead and Brookfield, coach Roeser said his team is in a critical stretch when it comes to its playoff seeding.
"We're stressing with the girls that we're treating all these games as playoff games, because that's what they are right now," he said. "They're going to affect our seeding. The next three will, after tonight. We're going to treat them like playoff games and we're going to do what we've got to do to win."
The Edge defeated Medford 4-3 in the teams' first meeting Dec. 20 in Medford on a goal by Wyndi Saari with 24.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
"It's going to be another game where we're going to have to really find a way to finish," coach Roeser said. "They've got really good goaltending too. We've also got to keep pucks out of our net. Taking care of our D zone is going to be key and finishing."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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