Lumberjacks celebrate girls hockey legend

Forget about glass ceilings, Lumberjack alumnus and professional women's hockey player Sadie Lundquist has reached the roof of the local hockey arena - and she's the first female to get there.

The Pine Knot News did a feature story on the former CEC center in January. Last Thursday, the CEC program hung a banner with a photo of her in her Minnesota Whitecaps professional uniform from the rafters at Northwoods Credit Union Arena, where she was a star player for the Lumberjacks girls team. The banner hangs in the middle of the arena along with those of a host of CEC boys players who went on to play professional hockey.

"Sadie is the first National Women's Hockey League player from CEC," said Lumberjacks coach Courtney Olin.

The Whitecaps feature a roster that is chock-full of former Division I superstars from schools like Minnesota, St. Cloud State, New Hampshire, Bemidji State, UMD, Boston College and a number of other top programs.

"Since Sadie is currently playing the NWHL, which is the women's version of the NHL, we felt as though she deserved the same credit of all the male professional players who played in the NHL from CEC, which resulted in the banner," Olin said.

Not only was the banner hung from the rafters of Northwood's Credit Union Arena, but Lundquist was there to drop the ceremonial first puck prior to CEC's game against Grand Rapids/Greenway.

"In terms of the CEC program, I think Sadie is an absolute great example to all of the current high school and youth players in our program," Olin said. "The opportunities that have arisen over the last five to 10 years in women's hockey have opened doors for female athletes and provided opportunities at a higher level. Sadie is a great example of how hard work and perseverance can lead to success."

Unfortunately, the game did not play out in favor of the 'Jacks as the Lightning came away with a 4-0 win.

"They are a great, hardworking AA team with a lot of depth," Olin said. "They are very skilled and that showed against us Thursday night."

The lack of ability to score against Grand Rapids/Greenway has been problematic through the season for CEC.

"Our Achilles heel recently has been finishing on the scoring chances that we are creating and I think we had the same issue Thursday night," Olin said. "When we face a really skilled team like Grand Rapids/Greenway, we have to capitalize on all of the opportunities that are presented to us."

The loss to the Lightning dropped CEC to 15-7 on the season, which is not all that bad when you consider the tough road schedule it has had over the last couple of weeks.

"We knew going into January that we would be facing some very tough opponents on the road, without much of a break in the schedule," Olin said. "I think that our tough schedule late in the season has started to wear on us. Like everyone, our goal is to be playing our best hockey during playoff time, so I think we have some refocusing to do and the next week and a half we are really going to focus on cleaning up our defensive end and finishing up our scoring opportunities."

CEC game against North Shore was canceled due to the extreme cold. CEC is scheduled to travel to Bemidji tonight.