Park breaks the ice with Stillwater win

By John Molene
Posted 1/13/25

This was a night to remember for the Park Wolfpack.

The Wolfpack skated to their best game of the season, scoring a 3-1 win over visiting Stillwater Tuesday, a win which ended a six-year long …

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Park breaks the ice with Stillwater win

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This was a night to remember for the Park Wolfpack.

The Wolfpack skated to their best game of the season, scoring a 3-1 win over visiting Stillwater Tuesday, a win which ended a six-year long losing streak against the Ponies.

Stillwater took an early 1-0 lead with a first-period score, but Park would score the next three goals to earn the victory.

“A really nice win,” said head coach Bay Shock.

Asked when the last Park win in the series was, Shock was unsure. “Before I was here. I think Coach Morris beat them a couple times, but this is the first one, plus the third conference win this year already, so that’s huge for us. They played a third period. I thought we were going in one-one and we haven’t beat a team in a long time and they really played well. Goalie played well; D played well. You could just see the confidence more and more and (Addie) Cork comes flying through the neutral zone and scores that goal. Man, what a fun game.”

Senior forward Josie Leonard tied the game up at 1-all in the second period on a power play goal with an assist by senior Lauren Osland.

Then Park took the lead for good late in the third as sophomore Addie Corkish powered in an even strength score. Ava Taschner got the assist on that one.

The Wolfpack then iced the game with an empty net score from senior defender Madi Brinkman at 15:50 mark, setting off a rapturous celebration.

Stillwater had won 11 straight in the series coming in, often by lopsided scores such as 12-2, 9-2 and 9-1. You have to go back to the 2018-19 season to find the last time Park didn’t fall to the Ponies, and that game was a 0-0 tie.

Park’s offense obviously played well in the win, but coaches and teammates were key to praise the work done by junior goalie Alayna Adamez as a major key to the victory. Adamez stopped 35 of 36 Stillwater shots for a .972 success rate.

Asked the difference between this game and the previous two, Corkish said: “We connected a lot more as a team and used each other a lot more. We used each other to move up the ice and we brought each up after we made mistakes and just kept on working together.

“I thought it was a really good night for our whole team,” said Adamez. “We all connected as a group together and I definitely think we -- after the first period when we were a little suck because we were down one – but we came out the second and third super, super hard and we worked together. We connected as Addie said. Our team has just been bonding and bonding and I think the more family we connect the more games we’re going to keep winning and it was a big win (against) Stillwater because we haven’t beaten them in so long.”

Asked which unit played better, the offense or the defense, Corkish had this to say with a laugh. “I think the goalie.”

It was the first home ice win of the season for the Wolfpack after three tough losses and a tie. Park improved to 3-2 in the Suburban East Conference and evened its season record at 3-3-1.

Stillwater dropped to 2-1-1 in the SEC and 2-3-1 overall.

Next up for Park is a home game against an undefeated Forest Lake team (5-0) on Saturday, Dec. 7, following by a game at Cretin-Derham Hall (1-3-2).