Wildcats Tie Warhawks

Despite starting the game without several players and losing another key player to injury during the game, the co-op girls’ hockey team out shot Arrowhead 23-14 and came from behind to tie Arrowhead 2-2 in an Eastern Shores Conference overtime game Thursday in Hartland.

“Our bench was getting short, and we had to rearrange the lines some,” said USM's coach Jason Woods, “but our girls are tough and they played a good game despite the odds."

The Warhawks took an early lead. In the right circle in the USM end junior Hannah Bird stripped the puck from a USM defenseman who caught an edge and was falling. Bird immediately fired a low shot into the far corner of the USM net at 6:26 of the first period. 

The Wildcats tied the game early in the second period on a power play. Junior Laine Tomesch got the puck just outside the Warhawks’ blue line and skated it into the Arrowhead zone to set up the power play. Tomesch fed the puck to freshman Nina Andersen on the left boards.  Andersen skated toward the middle of the zone and sent a pass to senior Megan Bailey in the right circle. Bailey stepped in and blasted a line drive past Arrowhead's sophomore goalie Hannah Nicholson at 2:09.

Arrowhead went back ahead late in the second period. Bird took the puck in the center of the Arrowhead zone and skated down the ice. As she closed in on USM’s sophomore goaltender Heidi Golembiewski, she took a shot and fell across the crease. The puck lay there and freshman Courtney Krueger rushed in and popped it into the net at 14:56.

USM tied the score once again early in the third period. Bailey moved the puck to sophomore Abby Wigdale in Arrowhead’s left corner. During a scramble for the puck there, senior Ellie Wigdale, Abby’s cousin, pulled the puck loose, skated up the left boards, and swerved into the left circle. With the accuracy of an atomic clock, she blazed a shot inside the near post for the goal at 1:37 of the period.

USM outshot Arrowhead 9-3 in the period as they attempted to pull ahead on the scoreboard. They were unable to score, so the game went into overtime.

The action in the eight-minute overtime period was exciting. It featured two back-to-back breakaways, one by each team, a second breakaway by Arrowhead that Golembiewski stopped, and a shot off the cross bar by USM. None of it led to a change in the score, so after the eight extra minutes, the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

In the game, Golembiewski made 12 saves while Nicholson made 21 saves.

Arrowhead is now 4-5-1 and 2-2-1 in the conference. USM is 11-2-1 and 3-0-1 in the conference. There is no rest for the weary Wildcats. They play their sixth game in nine days on Friday at 7 p.m. in another conference contest against the Green Bay co-op at the Cornerstone Ice Arena in Green Bay.