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Physical Pines Team Pushes Past Marshfield

By webjr, 01/15/13, 9:30AM CST

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Penalty killing is key as Pines takes the lead in the Great Northern Conference

Northland Pines gameplan was clear to anybody that was watching: don't let Marshfield's Paige Johnson beat us.  The strategy worked for the Eagles, who defeated Marshfield 4-1 to improve to 7-1-1 in the Great Northern Conference (9-7-1 overall).

The Eagles had to kill six penalties in the game, four of which were tripping calls against Tigers' star defender Johnson.  "They stuck to the game plan, they played physical hockey," said coach Patrick Schmidt on WRJO radio after the game. "Just because its girls hockey doesn't mean there isn't body contact, there just isn't checking. The girls have every right to the ice."

It was that physical play throughout the entire game that gave Pines the edge.  The Eagles rotated four lines, while Marshfield only skated two.

Paige Healy opened the scoring for Pines in the first period when firing a shot off of Johnson's legs that deflected onto Tiger goalie Alexis Straughan. Straughan made the save, but Healy picked up her own rebound and put it home.

In the second period, Kali Ebert added a tally for the Eagles. Marshfield won a draw in their own zone but Ebert picked the pocket of a Tiger player and walked in all alone on Straughan. She beat the Tiger goalie to give Pines the 2 goal advantage.

A few minutes later Ebert put another hard shot on Straughan and she couldn't corral the puck; Lauren Czarapata knocked it in to give Pines the 3-0 lead.

The Tigers took their timeout to regroup, down 3-0 in this battle for the GNC lead. The finished the second period without further damage, and midway through the third Morgan Larson took a nice feed from Kessa Schreiner and beat Jenna Paez to get Marshfield on the board with a power play goal.

Marshfield kept up the pressure, but Cali Sanborn got out of the Tiger zone on a breakaway and beat Straughan on the glove side to give Pines a 4-1 lead. That lead would stick for the remainder.

WiPH Game Summaries

"Those are the girls that I know, those are the one that I like seeing. They played very good hockey. They were in the box, but I can't really fault them for that," said coach Schmidt. "They were playing more physical tonight because [Marshfield] was only using two lines, and we were running four."

Before the game Schmidt emphasized the need for his team to attack rebounds and it paid off as two of Pines' four goals game on rebound shots.

Jenna Paez played a strong game in net for the Eagles, turning away 24 of 25 shots. Straughan turned away 26 of 30 for the Tigers.

The win moves Pines to 7-1-1 in the Great Northern Conference, and gives them the lead at 15 points.  The loss drops Marshfield to 6-1-1 and 13 points.  Obviously with both teams holding a loss and a tie, nothing has been decided. Don't count out the Point-Rapid Red Panthers who are currently 6-2 in GNC play or the 5-3 Northern Edge who got their program's first ever victory over Pines last week.