The Falcon Women's Hockey team's hopes for another undefeated regular season ended on Friday night at Hunt Arena. The Falcons hosted UW-Superior in what was a very fast, well-defended hockey game.
The all-time series record between these two teams going into Friday night's game was tied at 21-21-3. The even play continued into the third period of tonight's contest as both were kept off the scoreboard in periods one and two and the game was eventually settled in overtime.
The Falcons came into the weekend ranked #5 in this week's USHCO.com poll.
Melissa Deardorff (Anchorage, AK, Anchorage North Stars) was in net for the Falcons and had a rock-solid first period in which she recorded ten saves.
Shanley Peters started in goal for UW-Superior and also had a fantastic first period as she stopped 12 shots.
Despite having the kill off three penalties in the first period, the Falcons played well and were able to keep the game deadlocked at 0-0.
In the second period, the Falcons picked up the pace and outshot the Yellowjackets 9-4, but couldn't find the back of the net.
There were no penalties called in the second period, which made for a fast paced game.
The third period was even once again until just over halfway through at 11:02.
UW-Superior's Kaiti Graham took a pass from Kerry Mayhew at the blue line and put in just under the legs of Deardorf. It was Graham's second goal of the season and it put the Yellowjackets up 1-0 with just under ten minutes to play.
The Falcons, known for their clutch performances answered back at 16:09 when Katie Batters (Champlin, MN, Champlin Park HS) found Darion Bruyere (Sagkeeng First Nation, MAN, Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy) who launched the puck over the shoulder of Peters. The goal was Bruyere's fourth of the season and it tied the game up at 1-1 with just under four minutes to go in the third period.
The final three minutes of the third would be frantic, but neither team would be able to score the decisive goal in regulation and the game moved on to an overtime period.
The Falcons entered their second consecutive overtime period after beating St. Olaf in overtime 3-2 on November 22nd.
This time the Falcons were unable to get the game winning goal and the Yellowjackets got the win on shot by Dani Schultz that slipped passed the pad of Deardorf. The goal was Schultz's sixth goal of the season and it gave Superior their fourth win of the season.
“In every game we've played this year we were always expected to win,” said Falcon Coach Joe Cranston, “Now we can come back tomorrow and play with some urgency because we are not expected to win.”
“I though we played hard, but give Superior credit – they won the little battles and kept us to the outside in our offensive zone.”
The Falcons outshot the Yellowjackets 32-24 overall in the game, but were outshot 3-0 by UW-Superior in the overtime period.
Heather Horgen (Grand Rapids, MN, Grand Rapids HS) and Alice Cranston (River Falls, WI, St. Croix Valley HS) had four shots on goal. Kait Mason (Eagan, MN, Eagan HS) also had four shots and Emma Nordness (Excelsior, MN, Benilde-St. Margaret's HS) had three.
UWRF killed of all five penalty kills they faced on Friday night. They also were 1-2 on the powerplay.
Sam Greeley (Woodbury, MN, Woodbury HS) was impressive in defense all night as well as Amanda Ryder (Menomonie, WI, Minnesota Thoroughbreds) as both played big roles killing off the Falcon penalties.
Despite a great performance, Melissa Deardorf falls to 4-1 on the season.
The Falcons are now 7-1 overall and 6-1 in the NCHA. UW-Superior improves to 4-2-2 overall and 3-1-1 in the NCHA.
The Falcons will return to Hunt Arena on Saturday, December 3rd at 2:05 to play the second game of the two game series against UW-Superior.
Box Score
