Despite being in a three-way tie in its three-team pool for wins and losses, the Rainy River Community College women’s hockey team didn’t advance last weekend to the semifinals for the opportunity to play for another ACHA Division 2 national title.
With the three teams all ending pool play at 1-1, RRCC head coach Evan Amdahl said the tiebreaker criteria involving goals scored against and goal differential placed the Voyageurs into the consolation game and out of the national title picture.
RRCC had previously played in every ACHA W2 championship game since the 2007-08 season, winning three of the last four national titles.
The Voyageurs, seeded No. 2 in their pool from the West region, opened the 2012 National Championships on Saturday in Wooster, Ohio, with a 3-0 loss to the West Region’s No. 3-seeded team, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, which split two games with RRCC at Bronco Arena during the regular season.
The Voyageurs outshot Alaska in the tournament game, 23-20, unlike both regular season games when RRCC faced more shots on goal.
“The girls played well,” Amdahl said. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Alaska got on the scoreboard with 13:34 left in the second period on a goal by Shawna Jusczak.
The final two Alaska goals came late in the third period from Rackell Kowalchuk and Linda Evans. Evans scored an empty-net goal with 39 seconds to play.
Amdahl said he pulled Katie Stearns out of the goal late in the third period in an effort to score with an extra attacker on the ice, but in hindsight the empty-net goal RRCC gave up turned out to be a deciding factor in the tiebreaker criteria to determine which two teams in the pool advanced to the semifinals.
“That pretty much made the difference,” he said.
In Sunday’s game against the East Region’s No. 1-seeded University of Delaware, which opened the tournament with a 2-0 victory over Alaska, the Voyageurs won, 2-0.
Facing the ACHA W2 player of the year in Delaware goalie Brie Scolaro, the game remained scoreless until the final period.
RRCC’s first goal came with 7:10 remaining when Chelsea Poulton scored assisted by Janet Scherrer and Katrina Wreggitt. Brittany Johnson added a goal assisted by Courtney Laycock with 6:18 left to play.
Delaware played the final 1:14 a player short after Sara Berkley received a hooking penalty. Amdahl said the Voyageurs also pulled Stearns out of the goal late in the game to add another attacker on the ice in an effort to score again for tiebreaking purposes, but couldn’t get another puck past Scolaro.
RRCC outshot Delaware, 21-12 as Stearns recorded the shutout in goal.
The Voyageurs then faced the East region’s No. 3 seed, California University of Pennsylvania, in Monday’s consolation game. RRCC won, 3-1, for fifth place in the six-team tournament.
The Voyageurs’ first goal came from Wreggitt on an assist by Poulton with 10:58 left in the opening period.
RRCC’s Lea Aaberg scored a goal assisted by Poulton and Melanie Scott with 7:56 to play in the second period to give the Voyageurs a 2-0 lead.
California’s only goal came less than a minute later from Alli Paratore.
RRCC’s final goal came on a power play with 1:09 left in the final period when Johnson scored assisted by Thea-Marie Sauca.
The Voyageurs ended up outshooting California, 26-10, as Stearns recorded the victory in goal.
“We dominated them,” Amdahl said.
RRCC ended the season 11-3-3 in ACHA games.
Alaska advanced to the semifinals as the top team in its pool to face the second-place team in the other three-team pool, the East Region’s No. 2 seed, Slippery Rock University.
Delaware made it to the semifinals to face the other pool’s top team, the West region’s No. 1 seed, the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Alaska and Stout won their respective semifinals to advance to Monday’s championship game.
Delaware defeated Slippery Rock, 4-1, for third place.
Stout won its first national championship after defeating Alaska in the title game, 5-2.
Saturday’s results
Alaska 3, RRCC 0
Alaska 0 1 2 — 3
RRCC 0 0 0 — 0
Sunday’s results
RRCC 2, Delaware 0
RRCC 0 0 2 — 2
Delaware 0 0 0 — 0
Monday’s results
RRCC 3, California 1
California 0 1 0 — 1
RRCC 1 1 1 — 3
