Girls hockey: White Bear Lake pulls away from Ponies in third period

Two teams with Suburban East Conference aspirations squared off on Friday at the St. Croix Valley Rec Center, but only White Bear Lake kept those hopes alive following a 5-2 girls' hockey victory over Stillwater.

The Ponies (10-4-0 SEC, 15-6-2) were riding a three-game winning streak entering the game and a victory would have created a three-way tie atop the standings with just two games remaining, but only the Bears (11-1-2, 16-4-3) and Roseville (11-2-0, 19-2-1) remain in the hunt now.

A bigger prize remains as Stillwater joins No. 1 ranked Roseville, White Bear Lake and Hill-Murray as leading contenders in Section 4AA, widely considered the strongest section in the state.

"Both times we won the state tournament we didn't win the conference," said Ponies coach Tony Scheid, who nevertheless would have liked to add that to the team's rŽsumŽ. "(The conference) is something we always want to win. It's so hard to win, you want to win it. It's a great tournament, a 16-game tournament, and you've got to hand it to whoever wins it. It's tough and everything has to go your way to win in this conference."

The Ponies battled back to tie the game at 2-all midway through the third period, but White Bear Lake scored three times in the last seven minutes to complete the regular season sweep against Stillwater. The Bears also recorded a 3-2 victory over the Ponies on Dec. 19.

Sammi Reiter scored less than three minutes into the game to give the Ponies an early lead, but they trailed 2-1 after allowing consecutive goals while getting outshot 10-5 in the period. Sam Hanson and Hayley Hill answered for the Bears and they carried that lead into the third period.

"We were just a little off tonight," Scheid said. "We couldn't get the puck to bounce our way. The first period we didn't feel like we had a very good period and we weren't getting the puck to the net and we weren't going to the tough areas in front of the net. We thought we picked it up in the second period and played a lot better and then in the third period we kept working and things went our way."

The Bears were called for 11 penalties - including two 10-minute misconducts - compared to just three minor penalties for Stillwater.

The Ponies converted on just one of their power plays, although it was a big one as Alli O'Brien knocked in a cross-ice centering pass from Kristina King past goaltender Maddi Abrahamson to even the score at 2-all with less than nine minutes remaining in the third.

"We've got to capitalize more on the power play for sure," Scheid said. "I thought as the game went on we adjusted on the power play and did a better job of getting the puck to the net and screening and trying to create screens, tips and rebounds. We did a lot of things right there, but just couldn't get a break."

White Bear Lake regained the lead at 10:14 when Hanson scored her second goal after slapping in a pass from Erin Green behind the net.

Green then provided some breathing room for the Bears with a goal for a 4-2 lead with just over two minutes remaining. Morgan Johnson capped the evening with an empty-net goal in the final seconds for a three-goal margin.

"We've got to shore up some things defensively," Scheid said. "We felt like we were carrying the play in the third period and kind of let them back in. I thought we did a good job adjusting to the play and as the game wore on we became a lot more effective offensively in the second and third period, but the mistakes killed us. We made bad mistakes on d-zone faceoffs."

Marah Sobczak finished with 24 saves in goal for the Ponies, who were outshot 28-19.

The reigning state champions competed without senior Cassandra Salmen on Friday as she recovers from a deep cut suffered during Tuesday's victory over Park.

"She's somebody we need in the lineup and we're a different team when she's in the lineup," Scheid said. "It's day-to-day, but I'd say we'd be lucky to have her back for Roseville."

Stillwater traveled to Mounds View on Monday and closes out the regular season at Roseville on Saturday before turning its attention towards the section tourney.

"There's a lot we can build off," Scheid said. "A couple of breaks here and there.... I tell you, we haven't had any puck luck all year and I don't care what anybody says, I'll wait for it. I don't care if it comes at the end.

"I think the kids really played hard and left it all on the ice. We're just going to move forward here and try to finish the season strong and try to get healthy for the playoffs. It looks like we're going to have a tough quarterfinal game and really tough semifinal game - it's going to be tough. It's going to be three tough games to go to state for us. We know we're going to have to bring our A-game if we're going to go back."




White Bear Lake 2 0 3 - 5

Stillwater 1 0 1 - 2




First period - 1. St, Sammi Reiter (Angie Graske, Kristina King) 2:46; 1. WBL, Sam Hanson (Erin Green, Elsa Bruestle) 5:48; 2. WBL, Hayley Hill (Crysta Lowell) 15:13.

Second period - No scoring.

Third period - 2. St, Alli O'Brien (King) pp, 8:08; 3. WBL, Hanson (Green) 10:14; 4. WBL, Green (Kristi Longendyke) 14:53; 5. WBL, Morgan Johnson (unassisted) en, 16:52.

Penalties - WBL, 11-38:00; St, 3-6:00.

Saves - WBL (Maddi Abrahamson) 4-8-6-18; St (Marah Sobczak) 8-6-10-24.

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