(Photos by Michael Aldridge)
The Northwood Invitational is always a highlight of the season. Taking place directly after exams, the athletes are full of energy and excited to play in front of a home crowd.
Northwood Blue played in the fourteen-team Adirondack Division. This was the inaugural year of Northwood White’s division, the Mirror Lake division, which included Brewster Bulldogs, the Quakers, and Northern Cyclones 16U.
With five players out with injuries or playing in International competition, many “light blue” players pulled double duty and played up to six games in two days. The tired legs were apparent, but the girls worked hard throughout the weekend.
The weekend began with an early 7:45 game for Northwood White against the Northern Cyclones. The first half was a fast paced, evenly matched game. Both teams kept a strong defense and quick aggressive offense resulting in a score of 0-0 at the half. As both teams entered the second half it began to show that this was Northwood’s first game since before Christmas their legs began to get heavy and the crispness of play slowed. The Cyclones took advantage of this fatigue and score three quick goals. Though the team persevered to the end, they were unable to get on the board and tallied a loss.
Blue started with a win against Wyoming Seminary. Despite a slow start, they dominated the second half. Nikki Kendrick scored the first goal, which would be the game winner. Bridgit Sullivan scored a beautiful backhander for assurance and Kim Mongrain got the win in net.
The second game of the tournament for White was against the Brewster Bulldogs. Northwood White has faced Brewster before and was ready for a physical match up. Brewster went ahead in the first half tallying three goals to Northwood’s two, scored by Mia W and Kendall D. After a between periods heart-to-heart, the huskies came out determined to even the score. Though they fought hard, they did not get any more shots by the Brewster goaltender and the game finished with a final score of 5-2 Brewster.
In the second game of the day for Blue, they took on Walpole Express. This game was faster paced and the Huskies found themselves down early in the game after a bad turnover. They traded chances throughout, but only Walpole could score again. Hanna Markel made 22 saves in net.
Game three of the Mirror Lake Division round robin play was against the U19 Lady Quakers. This game was played on the historic 1980 Herb Brooks Arena. Northwood White was still trying to get their game legs under them and the large ice surface of the 1980 rink did not help this cause. All of the girls battled, and most of the play took place in the Quakers’ zone. The Quakers were depending heavily on their goalie and the huskies could not find the net. After 24 shots on net, the game ended with the huskies snake bitten for goals and a third loss on the weekend. The final score was 3-0 Quakers.
For the final game of the tournament for the Blue team, they faced OHA Maroon. The first half was back-and-forth with the Huskies getting more high quality scoring chances without any conversions. A bad turnover at the blue line opened the scoring up and led to an OHA goal. The Huskies went down two after a rebound snuck by Ashley Davis. The Huskies didn’t give up though, and Kylie Kroes gave the team some momentum when she shot a low wrister that snuck in five hole. Despite a flurry of chances with the pulled goalie, the tired Northwood team couldn’t tie it up.
Northwood White then faced Brewster again in the Consolation game and was ready for a second chance at them for a win. Again, the struggle to find the back of the net continued. Brewster scored first but then Northwood came back with the tying goal by Sierra B. The game finished in a 1-1 tie.
With some players playing up to six games in two days, the tournament certainly helped the Huskies conditioning. Struggling to put pucks in the net also will make them more hungry in the future. The best highlights from the weekend, though, came from off the ice. With family and friends in town to watch the games, most Huskies got the chance to spend some much needed quality time with loved ones. The parents also got to have some fun, playing pond hockey at the Kroes home!
Northwood School Girls Hockey 