Lumberjack girls finish best season in years

Weather wreaked havoc with the girls hockey playoffs schedule on Thursday last week, pushing those quarterfinal games to Friday and leaving teams little time to recover for the semi-final round on Saturday. The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls easily handled Eveleth-Gilbert 5-0 at home on Friday, but then struggled offensively on Saturday as they were eliminated by the Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers by a score of 1-0.

"For a coach, anytime things get adjusted, it's a bit unnerving to see how players are going to respond," said CEC head coach Courtney Olin. "Overall, we were very happy with our play against Eveleth-Gilbert. The team did a nice job of adjusting to the scheduling changes and capitalizing on scoring opportunities throughout the game."

The Lumberjacks wasted very little time in scoring against the Golden Bears. Just 2:02 into the first period, Kiana Bender put CEC up 1-0 with an unassisted goal.

"Kiana has been a leader on and off the ice all season," Olin said. "She works extremely hard and helps to set the tone for the game. Her scoring early in the game relieved some of the playoff pressure players were feeling, and I think we started to play more relaxed and overall cleaner hockey."

Jaxie Pogorelc added to the 'Jacks first-period lead with a goal assisted by Tenley Stewart and Dea DeLeon at 6:06 of the first period, and CEC held a 2-0 advantage after the opening stanza.

Just 1:02 into the second, Bender struck again with a goal assisted by Jenna Zdebski and Taylor Nelson. Then Nelson added her first goal of the playoffs at the 14:17 mark of the second, and CEC had a 4-0 lead after two periods.

A big key to the Lumberjacks' victory was their ability to put a lot of shots on Golden Bear goalie Rachel Woods and their strong forecheck kept E-G struggling to break out of their own zone for much of the game cleanly.

"We knew in order to be successful we were going to have to play solid positioning and disciplined hockey," explained Olin. "We were happy with our execution of our forecheck and that led to scoring opportunities. We were very proud of their hard work ethic throughout the game."

Dana Jones wrapped up the CEC scoring at 14:35 in the third period with Zdebski and Nelson again pulling through with the assists. For the game, CEC goalie Elise Lund recorded eight saves on eight shots for the shutout victory.

"This was the first program playoff win since 2012-2013," said Olin. "We also ended the regular season with the best team record since the 2005-2006 season. To see the girls have success in the postseason is what we work for all season."

The win pushed CEC into the Section 7A semi-final on Saturday night against Duluth Marshall in a game that saw the Hilltoppers eliminate the 'Jacks 1-0 with the only goal of the game scored by Lillian Johnson of Marshall in the second period.

Marshall recorded 25 shots on goal to the Lumberjacks' 20 shots on goal. The game was tightly played with a total of only three penalties in the hockey game.

"As a program, we have been working really hard to continue to grow the game of girls hockey and increase our participation in our community," Olin said. "Seeing the success at the high school level is only going to help grow the program and encourage participation at the youth levels."