Girls hockey ends conference season undefeated

 

The Bison girls hockey team wrapped up their regular season last week with two more wins, making them 18-7 overall and 11-0 in the Mississippi 8 Conference.
The Bison kicked off the week, Tuesday, Jan. 27, with a 4-2 win at Rogers to make them undefeated in the conference.
The Royals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on an early power-play goal and then another goal that deflected in off a skate. The Bison out-shot the Royals 11-4, but couldn't get on the scoreboard.
The Bison turned up the heat in the second period, out-shooting Rogers 21-6 and evening the score at two going into the third. Payton Rudiger scored on a power play, assisted by Rylan Bistodeau at 4:22. At 8:38 the Bison tied the game on a short-handed effort by Kirsten Olson with assists to Allison Roethke and Madi Jewell.
“We really put together a solid second period but it was still a tied game,” coach Ray Dahlof said.
Rudiger got the eventual game winner at 9:50 of the third period, assisted by Jamie Byrne and Roethke. Ashley Effertz gave the Bison a 4-1 cushion at 14:40 with assists from Taylor Thompson and Roethke.
Kendra Carlson stopped 13 of 15 shots for the win.
“The players really wanted to go undefeated again this year so they picked up the tempo after a slow start in the first period,” Dahlof said.
On Friday, Jan. 30, the Bison traveled to St. Cloud where they earned a convincing 5-1 win over the Icebreakers with a season-high 60 shots on goal.
Jewell put the Bison on the scoreboard early on a “wrister” from the right circle, Dahlof said. She was assisted by Effertz. Olson scored again for the Bison at the 11:50 mark off a rebound from a shot by Roethke to give the Bison a 2-0 lead going into the second. They out-shot the Icebreakers 20-3 in that first period.
“We really came out fast and set the tone in the first period,” Dahlof said.
The Bison continued their offensive dominance, puting 22 shots on goal with Rudiger converting a “beautiful” centering pass from Effertz. Jewell also added an assist on the goal, making it 3-0.
With about a minute left a Bison defender covered the puck while it was in the goal crease, resulting in a penalty shot for St. Cloud, during the same play the Bison were also given a roughing penalty. The Icebreaker player skated in from the red line with Carlson poised in goal for the Bison. As the skater tried to deke to her left, Carlson got her pad out and made the big save. However, the Bison still had to kill a two-minute penalty on the other roughing call. With 43 seconds left in the third period, the Icebreakers took a shot from the left point which hit a player in the shoulder and deflected it in the goal, cutting the lead to 3-1 going into the third period. The Bison put 22 shots on goal in the second while the Icebreakers had nine.
The Bison put 18 more shots on goal in the third period and notched two more goals to secure the win.
At 2:38 Olson scored her second goal, assisted by Rudiger, and at 11:52 Olson completed her hat trick, again assisted by Rudiger. Carlson finished the game with 20 saves.
The victory over St. Cloud will help the Bison in the Section 8-2A seeding process which ttook place on Monday, Feb. 2. The Bison went 5-0 against Section 8 teams this year.
The Bison junior varsity also beat St. Cloud 3-0. The JV team finished with an impressive 21-2-2 overall record, Dahlof said.

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