Detroit Little Caesars Girls' Team Advances to Semifinals in USA Hockey Nationals at the Onyx

The Detroit Little Caesars 19-and-under girls hockey team isn't making many mistakes in the 2011 USA Hockey Girls Tier-I Nationals, which are being held through Sunday at the Onyx Arena and Suburban Ice Macomb.

Little Caesars went undefeated in the regulation rounds (3-0) and outscored its opponents 21 to 7. On Saturday afternoon at the Onyx Rochester Ice Arena, the tournament’s eliminations rounds kicked off and the girls continued their dominance.

In the quarterfinals against the San Jose Jr. Sharks, Little Caesars made one early mistake, allowing a goal from Molly Doner less than 40 seconds into the game (:34), but that was it. Little Caesars cruised to a 9-1 win and advanced to the semifinals later tonight.

Little Caesars needed only five seconds (:41) to answer the Sharks early goal. Alyssa West won the ensuing faceoff and passed to Erin Conway. Conway pushed the puck up the ice and right back to West. West didn’t waste anytime taking a shot and scored over goalie Jordan Ferguson’s glove.

“That was a big momentum change,” coach Matthew Berger said. “You go up and down every hockey team’s schedule at our level, I’m pretty confident that we have the toughest schedule assembled in North America so that they’ve been in those situations before and are prepared for them.”

It was the first of three first-period goals for West. She scored again on Little Caesars first power play opportunity.

Nicole Paulides was called for tripping (5:02) and West went top shelf on Ferguson for the goal (7:00). The Sharks goalie had no chance to knock down the well-placed shot.

Two minutes later, West completed the hat trick (8:18) on a breakaway with Maryanne Menefee. Menefee picked up her sixth assist of the tournament on West’s third goal.

San Jose struggled getting into passing lanes, and the Little Caesars used that to its advantage. The players worked the puck back and forth and created scoring opportunities throughout the period.

“They focus on that a lot in practice,” Berger said. “We’re a big believer that the puck moves faster than the player can actually skate the puck.” 

Little Caesars extended its lead to 4-1 in the second period with a power-play goal from Kelsey Summers. The girls finished the game a perfect three for three when they had a man advantage. 

“It was great to see them execute some of those power play goals,” Berger said. “It was something we worked on all year, but something we struggled with. It’s great to see it coming together at the right time.”

In the third period, Little Caesars quickly put the Sharks away with three goals in a 90-second stretch five minutes into the period. San Jose switched goalies, but Jacqueline Audet didn’t have much luck either. She allowed two goals in the final five minutes of the game. All five Little Caesars third-period goals were scored by different players. 

Little Caesars finished the game with a 52-22 shot advantage over the Sharks.

Heading to Semifinals

At 8:30 p.m. today, the Little Caesars will step back onto the ice for a semifinal game with the Connecticut Polar Bears. The Polar Bears won 3-2 against the Buffalo Bisons in the quarterfinals and are also undefeated in the tournament.

“We saw the New York team earlier in the year,” Berger said. “They are going to be ready to rock and roll against us.”

Notes – Menefee finished the game with two assists and a goal. She is Little Caesars' leading scorer in the tournament with 11 points. Mellissa Channell (2), Erin Conway (3) and Abigale Belcrest (2) also had multiple assists in the game.