ADRIAN, Mich. - The push to the Slaats Cup Playoffs is on!
Starting on Friday, the Adrian women's hockey team will begin a five-day, five-game conference stretch that will cover the east side of Wisconsin and eventually make its way back to the Maple City.
Over the last month, the Bulldogs (10-5-1, 7-0-0 NCHA) have had to navigate around a series of postponements, ultimately resulting in the long-weekend ahead of them.
Concordia-Wisconsin is the first stop for the black and gold on Friday and Saturday, followed by a second make-up contest with Lawrence University on Sunday in Appleton. Then, the five-game stint wraps-up on Monday and Tuesday against Lake Forest College in Adrian. It will be the women's first series at Arrington Ice Arena since hosting Trine University back on November 20, 2021.
Since then, the 'Dogs are 5-4-1 in eight road games and two neutral bouts, but they have maintained their unblemished mark within the Northern Collegiate Athletic Conference, including a three-game weekend sweep of Finlandia University and Lawrence between January 20th and 22nd.
The Falcons of Concordia-Wisconsin, on the other hand, have dropped their last four in-conference contests by a combined score of 20-5.
Sarah Pearson leads the squad in scoring through 18 games this season, sitting eighth in the conference with 17 points on nine goals and eight assists. Freshman Katie Rahilly is one of three Falcons with 15 points, having garnered most of that total from her NCHA second-best 14 assists.
In goal, Annalina Van Hercke has started 13 games for Concordia, and sports a 0.915 save-percentage behind a 2.61 goals-against average.
In the all-time series between the Falcons and the Bulldogs, Adrian has won the last 14 meetings, and has not allowed more than one goal in a game in five seasons.
As for Sunday's match-up at Lawrence, the Bulldogs are looking to complete the season-sweep of the Vikings after posting an 8-0 victory on January 20.
Sydney Daversa (two goals and one assist) and
Une Bjelland (one goal and two assists) each contributed three points in the win, while
Kaleigh Cadorette and
Brooke Schembri also tallied two goals apiece.
Since late-January's showing against Adrian, the Vikings (0-16-0, 0-9-0 NCHA) have lost four-straight, and are scheduled to take on Lake Forest in a home-and-home series on Friday and Saturday.
Speaking of the Foresters (7-7-0, 7-1-0 NCHA), they are actively tied with Adrian for third-place in the league behind Aurora and St. Norbert, meaning Monday and Tuesday's action will carry significant postseason implications for both programs.
Marissa Gebauer currently sits in a four-way tie for fifth in the NCHA with nine goals. The Bulldogs' Bjelland and
Jessica VonRuden are also in that mix.
Between the pipes, Hannah Turnage holds the conference's fifth-best goals-against average and save-percentage at 2.37 and 0.929, respectively.
The junior will undoubtedly have her hands full against the league's second-highest scoring offense in Adrian.
The Bulldogs are averaging 4.25 goals per outing, which narrowly trails Aurora's 4.32 mark.
Karmen Anderson (seven goals and nine assists) and Bjelland (nine goals and seven assists) pace the team with 16 points each, followed by Schembri (six goals and eight assists) and VonRuden (nine goals and five assists), who each have 14 points.
In the paint,
Sophie Goldberg continues lead the NCHA with the fewest goals allowed (9) and the lowest goals-against average (1.40). The junior's 0.925 save-percentage ranks sixth, but her 0.786 win-percentage is second-best.
Live video will be available for all five games of this upcoming stretch. However, live stats will only be available at for the Concordia-Wisconsin series and the Lake Forest series.
