Close.  Saturday morning, the score of the game between two teams whose rinks are close was close.

At game’s end, the University School co-op girls’ hockey team had defeated the Lakeshore Lightning co-op 2-0 in a non-conference game played at the Ozaukee Ice Arena in Cedarburg.

The shot totals? Not close. The Wildcats spent a preponderance of the game’s time in the Lightning end and outshot their hosts 35-13. However, the Lightning’s senior goalie, Erin Connolly, kept the score close by allowing only two of the Wildcats’ shot to get past her.  They both occurred in the first period when junior Rachel Hoge and freshman Gaby Turer scored.  Meanwhile, the game’s other fine goaltender, freshman Marie Detert, kept the Lightning from making the score even closer by stopping all the shots put her way.

“We knew we had our work cut out for us facing Erin,” said Jake Haury, USM’s head coach.  “I thought we played really well today.  We have emphasized passing during practice and I thought we passed the puck well today, especially in their zone.  We needed to do that.  We have two big games against Holy Angels and Hudson this coming weekend and we need to be ready.”

The Wildcats scored the winning goal midway through the first period.  On a clearing play, the puck went deep into the Lightning zone.  In the USM zone a pass to the point skipped away and the puck skidded down the ice.  Connolly came out to play it.  She knocked it to the Wildcats’ junior forward Nicole Unsworth near the Lightning blue line.  Backchecking, the Lightning’s sophomore defenseman Alexandra Buchanan steered Unsworth into the right corner.  During a scrum for the puck, senior Caitlin McBride pulled the puck away and passed it to Turer in the right circle.  Turer crossed it to Hoge who was edging in from the left point.  Hoge’s shot blazed like a meteor into the net behind Connolly at 8:37.

The final goal of the game was scored just a few minutes later.  Taking a face off in the left circle of the Lightning’s zone, McBride won the puck back to Hoge at the left point.  The defenseman chipped it to Unsworth along the boards.  The puck hopped past her to McBride.  Pulling the puck away from the boards, McBride swung to the center and headed toward the net.  As she neared, she slipped a pass to Turer who was heading to the backdoor like a student arriving home from school.  Turer one-timed the puck into the small vacancy inside the pipe at 11:22.

After outshooting the Lightning 17-2 in the first period, the Wildcats continued to control the game, passing the puck around the Lightning zone and outshooting their opponents 8-4.  The Lightning closed the shooting gap in the third period, when the Wildcats outshoot them only 10-7, but Detert was alert and ready and she made sure those seven shots were for naught.  She earned the shutout as a result.

USM is now 13-1-1 while the Lightning’s record is 7-7.  The Wildcats play the Academy of Holy Angels in a non-conference game at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 15th at the Richland Ice Arena in Richland, MN. They then come back across the state line to face Hudson in Hudson at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 16th.