After a blowout loss to Eastern Washington on the road two weeks ago, the Idaho women’s club hockey team responded with a strong performance over the weekend in the Palouse Care Cup in Lewiston.
The Vandals earned three straight tournament wins before falling to the Eagles in the championship game on Sunday.
In Idaho’s opener on Friday against the Rink Divas, defenseman Brianna Smith scored the first goal of the tournament for the Vandals just two minutes into the game. The defenseman capitalized on an earlier deflection and shot the puck past the goaltender into the left side of the net.
“Scoring at the beginning actually plays a really big factor because usually the game might slow towards the middle because everyone gets tired,” Brianna Smith said. “It really helped us getting a few goals on the board before they did.”
Right wing Keanna Hawk scored a second goal several minutes later. The junior converted a deep shot from the left side of the rink to find the upper right corner of the net.
Hawk’s goal gave the Vandals a 2-0 lead.
The Rink Divas responded by scoring with three minutes remaining in the first period, following a cluster in front of the Idaho net.
With just sixty seconds left in the period, Hawk scored Idaho’s third goal of the period to give the Vandals a 3-1 advantage.
Midway through the second period, the Divas converted a breakaway scoring attempt on a counterattack after stealing the puck near center ice.
Later in the period, the Divas mounted another offensive push to tie the game at 3-3.
With six and a half minutes left in the third period, the Divas took advantage of a confusion in front of the net to score again and claim a 4-3 lead.
With just under four minutes left to play, Hawk sniped a shot from 22 feet out to tie the game at 4-4.
With just 2:10 remaining in the game, right wing Alena Lee found center Heroku Smith with a breakaway pass. Heroku Smith took advantage of a one-on-one opportunity to score the game-winning fifth goal for the Vandals.
“Alena found me in the high slot for the pass, and it was nice to come away with the game-winning goal,” Heroku Smith said.
Hawk led the Vandals with three goals, while Brianna Smith added one and Alena Lee finished with an assist.
On Saturday morning, the Vandals squared off against the Lewiston-based U19 Polar Bears
Team captain Lizzie Jossie scored for Idaho two minutes into the game following an assist from Hawk.
Hawk added the team’s second goal eight minutes later with a backhanded shot, and Jossie scored again in the closing minutes of the first period on a defensive counterattack to increase Idaho’s lead to 3-0.
Alena Lee continued the streak for the Vandals with a fourth goal during the second period.
Mikki Fritz scored another goal for Idaho two minutes into the third period to give the Vandals a 5-0 advantage.
Hawk found the net a second time midway through the period, and Jossie added a third goal to give Idaho a 7-0 lead and earn a hat trick.
The U19 Polar Bears scored in the closing seconds of the game during a line change for the Vandals. Idaho won the match-up 7-1.
Jossie led the Vandals with three goals while Hawk finished with two goals and four assists. Lee and Fritz both finished the game with one goal each.
Later that evening, the Vandals took the ice against Eastern Washington in a regional rivalry matchup.
Fritz put Idaho on the scoreboard in the first period with a forehand goal.
Jossie used another breakaway in the second period to add a second goal for the Vandals. Freshman Katie Sholty added the third goal for Idaho in the second period to give Idaho a 3-0 lead.
The Vandals held the Eagles scoreless through 45 minutes of play. The win qualified Idaho for the championship on Sunday afternoon.
After fighting through the losers bracket Sunday morning, Eastern Washington earned a berth in the title game against the Vandals.
Despite a win over the Eagles the day before, Idaho fell in the championship match of the Palouse Care Cup Sunday afternoon.
Brianna Smith put Idaho on the scoreboard with a goal during first period, and Sholty scored another midway through the second period to give the Vandals a 2-0 lead.
Eastern Washington responded with a late goal in the second period to cut the deficit to one, and then added two more in the third period to take a 3-2 lead.
Hawk appeared to score the equalizer in the closing minutes of the game, but officials waved off the goal, which gave Eastern Washington the championship.
The Vandals finished the tournament with a 3-1 record, improving the team’s spring record to 3-2 overall.
“Moscow is here to play hockey,” Hawk said. “ I know we are a girls’ team and that we are club, but we do have a care for hockey and we do love playing it.”
The next scheduled tournament for the Vandals is from March 5-6 in McCall. Idaho will compete in the Chix with Stix tournament with regional opponents.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos