The Wisconsin Selects Tier II U19 team advanced to the USA Hockey national tournament by winning the Central District championship this past weekend in Oshkosh. It is the fourth consecutive district championship for the U19 team. Their U16 team also won a district title in 2017. In five district championships, the Selects have a combined 15-0 mark.
This year, the team shut out its three opponents by a combined score of 13-0. In the first game, the Selects beat the Omaha Lady Lancers 4-0 as Ella Sciborski & Chloe Lemke combined to make nine saves. Scoring for the Selects were Ella Spies on a screened power play shot from inside the blue line. Lexie Hagen and Emily Bill assisted on the play. Sammi Federici put in a wrap-around power play for the second score. Dru Sabatke had the assist. The third goal, also a power play goal, came from Shannon Dwyer as she roofed a bullet from about fifteen feet away. Addison Gruhlke earned the assist. Kennedy Gruhlke with assists from her sister Addison and Tristan Wicklund closed out the scoring.
In the second game, the Selects downed the St. Louis Cyclones 7-0. Sciborski had eleven saves while the Selects put 46 shots on goal. Kennedy Gruhlke had the hat trick and Lexie Hagen scored twice. Single goals came from Jamie Steinmetz and Allison Waara.
For the championship, the team faced the Northshore Warhawks, Illinois state champions. The Warhawks with an impressive 49-12-3 record were ranked fifth in the Myhockeyrankings.com while the Selects were ranked seventh. Last year, the Selects edged the Warhawks 3-2 in overtime for the district championship.
On the ice, the game was back and forth with each team limiting the other to sparse quality scoring chances. It was scoreless after the first period as the Warhawks may have held the edge in zone possession. The Selects applied more pressure in the second stanza, but the score remained tied at zero.
In the third period, the Warhawks had a flurry of close in chances, but goaltender Chloe Lemke met the challenge. With over five minutes remaining, the Selects Sammi Federici had a break away opportunity that the Warhawks netminder Sarah Mathews stymied. The goaltending was rock solid at both ends of the ice.
With 2:41 remaining and the Selects on the power play Gaby DuVair had the puck behind the Warhawks goal line. She found Federici open at the inside hash marks in front of the net. Federici buried the puck for a 1-0 lead. The Selects defense withstood the Warhawks empty net attack in the final two minutes and iced the game on an empty net goal by Eileen Carey with 37 seconds left on the clock.
The Selects will now advance to the 2022Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls Tier II National Championships to be held in Philadelphia March 31-April 4. The Selects are coaches by Emily Bauer, Steve Kirley and Dr.Greg Slupe.
The Selects team consists of high school girls who played for their respective high school teams during the winter season. Team members include: Hannah Baumann, Logan Crawford, Gabrielle DuVair, Samantha Federici, Chloe Leme, Dru Sabatke, and Tristan Wicklund from the Central Wisconsin Storm; Emma Lyn Stephenson and Ashley Slupe from the Chippewa Falls Co-op: Kennedy and Addison Gruhlke from the Eau Claire Stars, Ella Spies and Allison Waara from the Fond du Lac Warbirds; Emily Bill and Ella Chilson from the Bay Area Ice Bears; Lexie Hagen from the Black River Falls co-op; Jamie Steinmetz from the Madison Metro Lynx; Ella Sciborski from the Fox Cites Stars; Eileen Carey from University School Co-op and Shannon Dwyer from Arrowhead. The team also included Hannah Wilson (Fond du Lac) and All-State Defenseman Jaden Hammes (Onalaska). Both played during the fall portion of the season but volunteered to give up their roster spots because of WAHA age restraints.
