The Forester women's hockey team's victory at Marian University on February 22 secured the second regular season conference championship in team history. Lake Forest also earned the right to host the final two rounds of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Tournament March 7-8. After last weekend's quarterfinal games, Friday's semifinal match-ups are set.
Lake Forest (15-5-3, 13-3-2 NCHA) will host Adrian College (19-6-1, 11-6-1 NCHA) in the first semifinal at 3:30 p.m. Adrian reached this point in the tournament by defeating Concordia University Wisconsin 6-5 in overtime at home last Friday night. The Foresters and Bulldogs began the 2013-14 season in Lake Forest with the visitors taking the opener 4-2 and the home team prevailing 4-1 in game two. The Foresters also hosted and defeated Adrian 6-3 on February 15. With 4.70 and 4.69 goals per game, respectively, Lake Forest and Adrian lead the league and rank among the top three in the nation in scoring.
The Foresters are led statistically by sophomore forward Michelle Greeneway, who has 40 points on 29 goals and 11 assists. She also leads the nation in goals as well as points and goals per contest. Fellow sophomore forward Melissa Paluch and junior forward Morgan Pope are next on the squad with 30 and 29 points, respectively, and sophomore forward Logan Taylor has 27, including a team-high 19 assists. Sophomore Alex Stensland is the leader among the Foresters' defensemen with 19 points on a goal and 18 assists. Senior goaltender Stacey Dierking owns a 7-2-2 record with a 2.91 goals against average and .894 save percentage.
Adrian junior forward Kelsey Kusch leads the country with 47 points on 22 goals and 25 assists. Hannah McGowan, another junior forward, is next on the team with 35 points while senior Alix Vallee leads league defensemen with 31 points and is tied for the national lead with 27 assists. Freshman forward Kristin Lewicki has 27 points and her five short-handed goals are two more than any other player in the nation. Three additional Bulldogs have at least 20 points and six more are in double figures. Freshman Jade Walsh has seen the most time in goal and is 12-5-1 with a .912 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.27.
Like Lake Forest, the College of St. Scholastica (15-7-3, 12-4-2 NCHA) had a bye in last weekend's quarterfinal round. The second-place Saints will take on St. Norbert College (18-6-2, 12-5-1 NCHA) at 7:00 in Friday's second semifinal. St. Norbert, the winner of last year's NCHA Tournament, blanked visiting Marian University 7-0 last Saturday to advance in this season's tourney. St. Scholastica won 3-2 and 4-1 at St. Norbert in mid-November, but the Green Knights edged out the Saints 2-1 at home in the regular season finale. St. Norbert has allowed a conference-low 1.81 goals per game and St. Scholastica is close behind at 2.00. The Saints own the most efficient power play in the league at 31.7 percent while the Green Knights are the NCHA's best at killing penalties at 89.1 percent.
Freshman forward Isabel Waidacher's 38 points on 15 goals and 23 assists lead St. Scholastica and also rank first among all the nation's rookies. Junior forward Nina Waidacher leads the Saints with 22 goals and added 14 assists, despite playing in just 16 games due to her participation for Team Switzerland in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Senior forward Michelle Fischer has 27 points, including a team-high-tying 23 assists, and junior defenseman Alex Blair has tallied 20 points on a goal and 19 assists. Freshman goaltender Lindsey Hartfiel is 11-6-2 with a 2.04 goals against average and has stopped 93.4 percent of opponents' shots on goal.
St. Norbert is led by junior forward Ali Parker's 17 goals and 30 points. Senior forward Zoe Kurth is next on the team with 29 points, including a team-high 19 assists. Senior forward Andrea Senne and sophomore forward Lauren Roethlisberger have 23 and 22 points, respectively, and senior Laurel Hill leads Green Knight defensemen with 21 points on four goals and 17 assists. Statistically, St. Norbert boasts the conference's top two goalies in seniors Kaley Gibson and Katie Aluia. Gibson is 10-6-1 with a .938 save percentage and 1.88 goals against average. Aluia is 8-0-1 with a 1.51 goals against average and a save percentage of .936.
Friday's winners will be back out on the Alumni Memorial Field House ice competing for the inaugural Slaats Cup Trophy at 3:00 Saturday afternoon. The winner of that contest will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which will begin next weekend.
