JWHL Playoffs

Playoffs

By: Martha Smith

DENVER- On Wednesday, March 7, the NSA Girl’s hockey traveled to Denver, Colorado for the Junior Women’s Hockey League Playoffs.  Going in ranked seventh out of ten teams the Mountaineers hoped to show well and end their league play with better standings.

Cianfarano slides one past Pride's goaltender

The Mountaineers arrived a day early to become acclimated to the high elevation of Denver, the Mile High City.  Becoming acclimated paid off as the girl’s first game Friday ended in a commanding seven to three win over the Washington Pride.  Sophomore Taylar Cianfarano and Junior Megan Whiddon both notched two goals in the win while junior goaltender Sarah Foss played a great game with twenty saves.  Senior Kelsey Lynch says the teams “best game” was this game.  

NSA Coach Bill Ward went on to say, “We went out, and we were well prepared, more prepared than opponents.”

The next morning the team faced their first opponent, the Edge from Calgary, bright and early.  The Mountaineers suffered a devastating five to two loss against the Edge, taking them out of the running for the Championship game.  Ward explained that the “second game was just not the best, and became most important,” adding that,  “we didn’t show up and let an opportunity slip by in the quarter finals.”

At this point the team had problems with sickness that took some players out of competition for the remaining two games.

Denisa Křížová fires off a shot

With a chance to still increase their standings in the JWHL the Mountaineers came out strong, taking control of their second game versus the Minnesota Thoroughbreds that Saturday.  NSA came out on top with a snipe from Senior Kelsey Lynch and a hat trick from Cianfarano ending the game with a solid four to one win.  Goaltender Martha Smith came out of the game with thirty-one saves.

After pulling themselves together for the second game on Saturday the NSA Girl’s Team was able to place themselves into a situation that enabled the team to increase their standing.  As senior Kelsey Lynch put it “we came together as a team for certain games, played really well with not having the right numbers.”  NSA would be playing for fifth and sixth on Sunday morning.  The Mountaineers were again matched up with the Washington Pride for the final game of league competition. 

Sunday morning the team arrived at the Edge Arena ready to face off against the Pride.  The Washington Pride came out strong, scoring two goals against the NSA Mountaineers in the first period.  NSA battled back with a goal from Cianfarano ending the first period down by one.

Megan Whiddon sends her shot top shelf

With the drop of the puck in the second period the Mountaineers took off, with two unanswered goals from Cianfarano, and giving the star forward her second hat trick of the tournament.  At the end of the third NSA had a three to two lead. NSA goaltender Sarah Foss had a busy third period, with eighteen shots, but allowed no goals, bringing her game total to forty-five saves.  The NSA Mountaineers kept their three to two lead, and increased the JWHL standings to fifth place.

Coach Ward’s commented on the weekend saying NSA “had good goaltending all weekend, Foss especially in the second game verse Pride, and Smith especially verse Minnesota.”  Coming from behind in the second game against the Pride showed plenty of heart from the Mountaineers who were only playing with eleven skaters, two of which were not at full strength.  Ward put it well as a “pretty gutsy performance.”