[Hi! Did you miss me? We’ve had a few days off – a lull in the winter sports home schedule, and the Alaska cruise posting was completed (some people actually said they liked it). The supervisor and I went to a couple of movies, a couple of meetings, a caucus, and I sent my feet out for their annual mid-winter sandblasting and belt sanding so they can keep going round and round and round at the Y. p.s. I did notice readership tended to drop off without new postings?]
Last night was Senior Night for the girls’ hockey team. Their last regular season home game. Always a bitter sweet time. We say good-bye to young ladies we have been following for four or five years – back when they were still girls!
We arrived early – in time to catch the last two periods of the JV game. The JV team has some seniors on it too. And we were playing Moorhead – the Spuds always draw a big crowd. The JV game was 0 – 0 after the first period, but the Spuds had a 20 – 6 shots-on-goal advantage. That didn’t sound good, we thought. But our Cards played great the last two periods and won the game 1 – 0. Bailey Serum pitched the shut out from goal. With about 8 minutes left in the game, Sara Schmidt (who will be featured below) won a face-off back to Ellen Lanman, a senior on defense (also featured below) – Ellen’s slap shot was tipped in by Madi Houska for the only goal in the game. The JV’s finished the season with a strong 16-4-3 record.
[And really closed the shots gap too.]
[Ellen Lanman (11), senior, and Taylor Bollman (9), sophmore]
[Rachel Drew (4), sophomore, and Chelsey Klingbeil (29), senior]
[“Where’d it go?”]
[“It’s under there!”]
[Rush hour traffic at the RCC.]
[Rachel starts a break.]
[Sara Schmidt (27), junior, gets off back-to-back shots from the point on the power play.]
[Micaela Swenson (34), freshman, played a terrific game, and Madi Houska (12), junior, was the goal scorer.]
[But at least there’s no checking in girls’ hockey! Collisions, however, are optional.]
[Madi and Micaela have a puck exchange amongst the Spuds.]
[“Let go of me!”]
[Bailey Serum (35), freshman, tends goal under the watchful eye of her bodyguard, Marisa Larson (25), freshman defense.]
[Bailey had a great season.]
[Congrats to Ellen on her hockey career. Maybe the best slapshot on the team, JV or varsity.]
[And then with only 3 minutes left in the game, she took a penalty! 😉 ]
[Madi sneaks up on the Spud goalie with the hidden puck trick!]
[As someone who just points the camera and hopes, I have to admit to being particularly happy with the above three photos of Sara.]
[Ellen and Marisa make one last stand for the defense. Then Ellen turned the keys over to her freshman teammate, who will maintain them for the next three years.]
Senior Night festivities began with a slide show of each of the nine seniors.
[Then their teammates skated over to the fan side of the arena. Each senior came out one at a time, and Marc Illies, PA announcer and father of Becca, read a short bio written by their parents. I tried the best I could to get photos, but the in the dark arena with a telephoto lens, I wasn’t very successful – some didn’t come at all. The girls were uncomfortable out there and tended to look at their feet. I hope the on-ice photographers got some good shots.]
[Brooke]
[Steph – yeah, I know, but it was the best of several.]
[Rachael]
[Heather]
[Chelsey]
[Alia]
[Quinn]
[Saddle up, ladies.]
[The background poster says thanks!]
[ . . . and the band played on.]
Six seniors were introduced as starters:
[Alia]
[Rachael]
[Quinn]
[Brooke]
[Heather]
[Steph]
Oh, we won! We ended the season with a 12-12-1 record. Not bad after an 0 – 6 start, where we went on the road against big schools (Moorhead, a 6-2 loss) and Twin City schools like Orono and Mound-Westonka (lost to each by one goal), both now ranked in the top 7 in the state. Last night Alia and Britni returned from injuries – and Alia scored two goals! Kalley was in full-unform and went through the pre-game warm-ups but was held out for one more game. We learned the Cardinals received the No. 1 seed in the section, meaning we will have a bye in the first round. We will host a semi-final game on Tuesday, and Kalley is scheduled to play in that game. With everybody healthy, we could do very well.
The opening 5 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_MXBOLpj1I
As it turned out, if I had let the video go for another minute or two, I would have captured the first goal. Melissa Drown on a break down the right side put a shot through the 5 hole.
[Celebrating Melissa’s (6) goal.]
[Shelby (38) and Shanee’ (40), junior training buds and tracksters.]
[Alia’s 1st gooooaaaaallllll!!!]
[Heather]
[Shelby and Becca (37), a winning combination all year.]
[Becca]
[Brooke gets off two shots from the point on a power play.]
[After one.]
[Taylor (24)]
[Alia]
[Alia and Taylor]
[Brooke keeping close contact with a Spud.]
[Quinn raises her arms – goooooallllllll!]
[Celebrating Quinn’s goal making it 3 – 0.]
[Rachael (15)]
[Heather (22), this shot went in! Goooaaaaallllll!]
[After the Spuds scored, Alia got her second goal and the team’s 5th.]
[After two. Good, fast paced game. Through two periods, the Cards were passing as well as they have all season. Things are looking good! 🙂 ]
The 3rd period began as it so often does in such circumstances. The Cards came out to protect the lead – by playing defense. And play defense they did – for the 1st 10 minutes of the period, the Spuds kept them locked up in their own end, building a shots on goal advantage. The Spuds scored a 2nd goal on a shot that must have deflected off 4 or 5 different shins. The Spuds also had two very fast skaters – and we were nervous whenever they were on the ice. With a 5 – 2 lead, the Cards had a power play – and they had worked them very well all game. This time, however, a puck came loose in center ice and one of the Spud speedsters scooped it up and swooped in on Steph to make the score 5 – 3, a short-handed goal with plenty of time still left. That kick started the Cards to realize the game wasn’t over, and Becca scored late for the final tally.
[Good game, Steph.]
The girls’ basketball team was at Willmar last night. We only beat Willmar by two points at home, so it figured to be a tough game. Our Cards won 54 – 23!! Our record is now 16 – 3. Three more road games before we’re home for the final two. More after postings by the staff photographer.
At Carlos Creek Winery yesterday. We have Annie, Bruce, and Mikko – and with an SRO crowd, kept us there all afternoon. The staff photographer and his staff went to Bemidji yesterday to cover the girls’ basketball game. That report will follow. We just thought it a good time to break up the sports reporting with our local music scene. There are three videos of Skilly & Duff’s performance contained herein. Enjoy!
alexandriacardinals 