Sports
Inconsistency sees Stars settle for weekend split
Matthew Semisch
01/27/2015
So far this season, Bottineau’s U-19 girls’ hockey team has proven itself to be one of the best teams in its division in the North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association (NDAHA).
What it learned last weekend, though, is that there is still work left to be done if the Stars are to become the best of the best.
Bottineau welcomed Watford City and Bismarck to the Bottineau Community Arena and experienced mixed results. The Stars downed Watford City 7-1 on Friday night before falling to Bismarck on Sunday afternoon by a 3-1 count.
Bottineau took a little while to get going on Friday against Watford City. After Katelynn Kerslake finally opened the scoring 39 seconds into the period, however, it wouldn’t be long before the Oilers were out for the count.
In the end, seven different Bottineau players scored against Watford City. Alexis Kihle, Mercedes McKay, Victoria Gullett, Megan Olson, Paige Vad and Jacie Ceglowski also found the back of Watford City’s nets over the final 34 minutes of play.
“That’s good balance, and all three lines were really working hard today,” Stars head coach Matt Johnson said after the game. “I’m pretty happy with that.
“I was glad that we finally got that one on the board, and it finally got us going in terms of getting goals on the board. We’d struggled a little in getting the puck up enough to get it past their goalie early on there, but it came around.
“I liked our effort a lot,” Johnson continued. “It was a good effort, and we won a lot of loose puck battles and did a lot of things that I was looking for today.”
CAPITALS CAPITALIZE
Sunday’s matinee promised to provide the Stars with more of a challenge.
Bismarck entered Sunday’s game in Bottineau in second place in the NDAHA U-19 girls division having only lost one game so far this season. It stayed that way on Sunday thanks to a 3-1 win for the Capitals.
Bismarck took a 1-0 lead 11:45 into the game, but Bottineau quickly answered on a somewhat flukey goal. A soft, low and seemingly harmless shot from Erin Severson in Bismarck’s right-hand face-off circle sneaked in between Capitals goaltender Lauren Watkins’s legs at 13:29.
The teams remained deadlocked at 1-1 until late in the third period. Two Bismarck goals 30 seconds apart inside four minutes left to play, however, doomed the Stars.
Speaking after Sunday’s game, Johnson said he felt that something was lacking from Bottineau’s effort on Sunday. The tilt against Bismarck, he said, was a winnable one.
“This is a winnable game, very much so,” he said. “The first five, seven minutes of the game, we dominated and controlled the game and then Bismarck picked up their pace and we didn’t, and that’s what it was to me.
“Kind of a bad game all the way around but especially the last two periods. We got outplayed and out-competed today and didn’t win enough loose puck battles.
“Bismarck’s a game where we can see where we stand in the league as far as overall, but it’s kind of disappointed to come away with that effort,” Johnson continued. “There are five or six really good teams in this state, and we’re one of them when we come to play but we didn’t today.”
Bottineau (8-3-0) will host an exhibition game on Saturday against Manitou at 3:30 p.m. before visiting league rival Langdon on Sunday.