Sports
U-19s sweep Fargo, Mayport on home ice
Matthew Semisch
02/17/2015
Bottineau’s U-19 girls’ hockey team further solidified its place at next month’s state tournament with a pair of hard-fought wins last weekend.
The Stars welcomed first-place Fargo to the Bottineau Community Arena on Saturday afternoon. Three first-period goals for Bottineau in a five-goal first period proved vital in an eventual 5-3 win over the Freeze.
Bottineau spread its offense around in the game, as four different Stars pushed pucks past Fargo goaltender Lauren Harr. Erin Severson, Alexis Gullett and Paige Vad all scored in a frantic first period before Sonja Gilje scored one goal in both the second and third frames.
Stars goaltender Jacie Ceglowski came up big at the other end of the ice when needed. The senior netminder finished the game with 35 saves.
On Sunday morning, Bottineau was paid a visit by a Mayport team the Stars had defeated 4-1 on the road on Jan. 10. This was a much tighter affair, however, as Bottineau again won 5-3.
Gullett replaced Ceglowski in the Stars’ net on Sunday and struggled early on. The Ice Dawgs went into the first intermission with a 3-2 lead.
A Mercedes McKay shot that found its way in through Mayport goaltender Danica Bachheir’s legs 6:13 into the game got the Stars onto the board before Severson scored at 12:25 of the first period.
The Stars took over from there. Gilje picked up her third goal of the weekend at 11:49 of the second period to tie the game before Severson potted the eventual game-winner 2:20 later.
Bottineau will now likely be the No. 4 seed at this year’s North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association (NDAHA) U-19 state tournament March 6-8 in Bismarck.
Next week, the Stars (13-5-0) will host Langdon on Friday at 6:45 p.m. and Hazen on Sunday at 10:15 a.m.