Grand Forks, ND – UND Women’s head coach Brian Idalski was asked about how he thought his team played so far this season.
“A work in progress,” Idalski said. “We still delegate to a few kids and expect them to bail us out a lot and that shouldn’t happen. I think our focus for us is getting scoring and help from all three lines and that isn’t happening."
If there has been a knock on this year’s University of North Dakota’s Woman’s team it’s been their inability to play a full 60 minutes of hockey and to stay out of the penalty box.
Coming into the game UND was leading the WCHA in penalty minutes with an average of 15.2 per game killing 20 of 23 penalty kills which is good enough for third place in the WCHA.
Tonight, the march to the penalty box continued for UND but they were able to kill five of six SCSU power plays.
The head coach was asked about the penalty kill after the game
“Coach [Eric] Fabian has done a great job,” Idalski said. “Really, it’s [penalty kill] has done well.”
Idalski went on to explain that his team is making strides and his team is almost there.
“Quite honestly in all the games we seem to be winning the attempted shots we’re winning all of the statistical battles… we don’t seem to have that comfort level as far as finishing off plays, it’s going to come, it’s a couple kids out of the line up, it’s some people still learning their way and you kind of hope the monkey you just feel they need a good confident game and some kids are going to explode out.”
Out of the gate, UND out-shot the SCSU Huskies by a lopsided total of 13-7, but Huskies sophomore goalie Julie Friend proved to be no friend to UND as she made many difficult and timely saves that came down low, from the slot.
UND was able to break through at the 08:26 mark of the first period with a goal by senior forward Jocelyne Lamoureux, assisting on the goal was Jordan Slavin and Monique Lamoureux.
SCSU would answer the UND goal with a goal from Molly Mott at the 02:27 mark of the second period, assisting on the goal was Alex Nelson and Haylea Schmid.
Through two periods of hockey, UND did everything but out score SCSU as the UND women out-shot the Huskies 19-13 but the score would remain tied 1-1.
UND would go ahead for good, breaking the tie at the 0:46 mark of the third period with Jocelyne Lamoureux’s second goal of the game on power play, assisting on the goal was Sam LaShomb and Monique Lamoureux.
UND would add to that lead with a beautiful by freshman Becca Kohler down low as she scored her first goal of her career with a goal at 15:44 mark of the third period. Assisting on the goal was Layla Marvin Ashley Furia.
After the game an excited Becca Kohler seemed relieved to get her first career goal.
“It was like a monkey off the back,” Kohler said. “Those expressions come to mind, like you practice all week for it in the morning and you get up early for that, to get the reward for the first goal is a good feeling, it feels good.
SCSU would pull their goalie in the later with about a minute to go but the Huskies were unable to get any more goals past senior goalie Jorid Dagfinrud who was solid in goal on the nigh stopping 12 of 13 shots.
After the name Coach Idalski was asked about the status of his injured forward Michelle Karvinen.
“Like I eluded to in the press conference this past week, Michelle is probably going to be re-evaluated next week and we would like to get her back for Minnesota obviously.