It wasn’t the 4-3 pattern as of late, but Park’s Wolfpack skated to their sixth straight win, dispatching visiting Mounds View/Irondale 2-0 Friday night.
Park junior goalie Alayna …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in, using the login form, below, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
It wasn’t the 4-3 pattern as of late, but Park’s Wolfpack skated to their sixth straight win, dispatching visiting Mounds View/Irondale 2-0 Friday night.
Park junior goalie Alayna Adamez got her first shutout of the season as the Wolfpack even their record to 5-5 in Suburban East Conference girls' hockey and 9-7-1 on the season at Cottage Grove Ice Arena.
“It was nice to pull that one off,” said Park head coach Bay Shock. “Josie went to the net there at the end and popped that second goal in and we’ve played I think this is two games in a row we’ve really played well.”
Park won its sixth game in a row after standing just 3-7-1 following a 4-1 loss at South St. Paul on Dec. 13.
“When we dropped a few in a row we weren’t playing terrible, we just couldn’t score,” said Shock. “And I really think you look back at that White Bear game (on Dec. 17) when we were down three-rip and beat them 5-3 taught us a little lesson. It might have been better than just winning outright if that makes any sense. When you come back three goals and yea, we’ve been getting some consistent scoring from different people so that’s helping us.
“And our goal tender played really well tonight,” Shock added. “We’re just looking to get better toward the end of the season and we knew our strength is our speed just attacking and when we can do that consistently we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Asked for reasons for the turnaround, Park senior forward Josie Leonard said: “I think a lot of it is just believing in each other. Like the games that we’ve won we all come back from behind so we’ve never been out of it, so even after those losses we still believed in ourselves and we still had half a season left to turn it around.”
Mounds View/Irondale remained winless in the SEC, falling to 0-10-1 and 3-14-1 overall. Park skated past Mounds View/Irondale 5-1 in the first meeting between the two teams this winter.
Five straight wins for the Wolfpack, though, including three straight by 4-3 scores.
Park sophomore defender Alaina Post scored midway through the first period to give the Wolfpack a 1-0 lead at the 8:37 mark. Natalie Post and Addie Corkish had assists on the play.
That’s where the game stood the rest of the way until Leonard iced it at 15:12 in the third with an even strength score. Madi Brinkman had the assist on that one.
“I think we made good passes,” said Leonard. “I think in the first and the second we were a little slow. And our objective for the third was to go faster and I think that worked out well for us.”
And her goal in the third.
“That was all for Madi, she made a great shot that went right out front. It was my job just not to mess it up.”
Adamez blocked all 23 shots in a superb effort in the net.
“I think our team did really good,” said Adamez. “I think we had a slow start but I definitely think we picked it up after the first goal and then definitely in the third we picked it up and said we’ve got to get another goal down just to get over the ridge because it could be a zero-zero game at any time. So I think after we got the second goal everybody was like, all in. I think it was a good game though.
“I think I did pretty good,” Adamez continued. “I did get a shutout so that was a really nice thing. But honestly I can’t do it all by myself so half my team has to score the goal for me and keep me up on D-zone.”
In 17 games so far this season, Adamez is allowing 2.38 goals per game with a .910 success rate.
The Wolfpack, meanwhile, fired 42 shots at the Mound View/Irondale goal.
Park plays Roseville/Mahtomedi (4-4-1, 8-6-1) Wednesday at the Roseville Ice Arena, starting at 7 p.m. then meets seventh-ranked and league-leading Woodbury (8-0-1, 13-0-1) Saturday at the M Health Fairview Sports Center with a 7:30 p.m. start. Park lost 3-1 to Roseville/Mahtomedi in the first meeting this season. Woodbury skated past Park 5-2 in their first game this winter between the two teams on Nov. 22.
