It took awhile for the University School co-op girls’ hockey team to get going Tuesday night, but freshman goaltender Marie Detert made some key saves to hold things together until the Wildcats could generate offense. Eventually they did, as they defeated Appleton United 3-0 in an Eastern Shores Conference game at USM.
Detert stood as a solid as castle and went on to record her second shutout of season, making 17 saves in the process. Her teammates began to get the puck into the Appleton zone more frequently and they forechecked more forcefully, mounting offensive pressure late in the first period and throughout the second and third period. They outshot Appleton 37-17 in the game. Junior Nicole Unsworth scored a first period goal and a third period goal. Senior Caitlin McBride added a third period goal to bring the Wildcats’ final total to three.
“We got off to a bit of a slow start tonight,” said Jake Haury, USM’s head coach. “But I told the girls before that if there’s a zero for the visitors on the scoreboard, we could win. Marie and the defense did a good job. Appleton is a good team. I give them credit. I knew we would have to wear them down and we did. We got some goals and the win. Now we face another tough task in Superior, who we play in the Culver’s Cup after Christmas.”
The shot totals were close in the first period, 9-7 in favor of USM. Appleton came out of the gate fast and sent players into the USM end with aggressive forechecking. The Wildcats were resilient. They held the Appleton attack off and finally got one of their own shots past Appleton’s junior goalie Mekenzy Housington late in the first period.
On a breakout from the USM zone, freshman Gaby Turer took the puck from the right boards and passed it to McBride who was skating into center ice. The puck clicked off of McBride’s stick to Unsworth. Like a mixer preparing butter for a Christmas cookie batter, Unsworth sped through the Appleton defense, cut in on Housington, and tucked the puck past her at 13:56 of the first period.
The Wildcats did everything they could to score in the second period outshooting Appleton 16-3, but Housington turned aside every attempt, including several during two USM power plays.
The pressure paid off for the Wildcats in the third period. They scored their second goal at 7:11. Freshman Karly Lamoreaux tipped the puck into center ice. Once again Unsworth snared and once again she took off, skated around defenders, closed in on Housington and slipped the puck through the five hole to give the Wildcats a 2 goal lead.
The score became 3-0 several minutes later. As the Wildcats forechecked, Junior defenseman Rachel Hoge got the puck at the center of the blue line, stepped in ad fired a low shot. Housington stopped it. Unsworth took swipes at the rebound, causing the puck to trickle to the right to McBride. McBride punched a backhand shot inside the post at 11:57.
USM is 8-1-1 and 4-0-1 in the Eastern Shores Conference. The Wildcats begin play in the Culver’s Cup Tournament when they take on Superior in a non-conference game at 5:15 p.m. on Monday, December 28th at Hartmeyer Ice Arena in Madison.
