After a tightly contested matchup against Adrian College, the Wilkes women’s hockey team is moving on in the NCAA national championship tournament. 2-1 was the final score after an evenly-matched sixty minutes of hockey.
Off the back of a stellar performance from Audrey Milne, as well as goals from Jordan Ferry and Abby Bush, the Colonels clinched the first tournament win in program history.
Coming into the contest, both the Colonels and Bulldogs were almost dead-even in every statistic. Wilkes came into the contest with the second-highest goals per game average, while Adrian was third in that category.
From opening puck drop until the 18-minute mark of the first period, both goaltenders were shutting down chances left and right. Wilkes’ Audrey Milne was showing why she was the two-time MAC championship MVP with yet another great performance between the pipes.
On the other side, Kiera Stack traded save-for-save with Milne as the two sides remained even. At 18:27 into the opening frame, the Colonels struck first as Jordan Ferry lit the lamp and sent the Toyota Sportsplex into a frenzy as the hosts went in front.
Ferry and Lily Zingaro combined on a breakout play, with the latter dropping a pass back to the Colonels center, who then fired the puck home past the far side of Stack.
A little over six minutes into the second period, the Colonels doubled their lead, this time with a goal from first-year center Abby Bush. Bush and Nina Hudakova played their own version of tic-tac-toe as three passes between the pair resulted in Bush firing home Wilkes’ second goal of the afternoon.
Adrian found a lifeline minutes later while on the power play. After a mad scramble in front of Milne, the puck found the stick of Courtney Ben, who flung it in to cut the deficit in half.
In the third period, goaltending was the name of the game as Milne and Stack combined for a whopping 21 saves in the final frame.
With about 90 seconds left in regulation, desperation set in as the Bulldogs pulled their netminder in favor of the extra attacker. However, the Colonels defended their zone, and any hope of an Adiran comeback was squandered.
Wilkes will take the drive to upstate New York next Saturday, March 21 to face off against Nazareth University. A team the Colonels have struggled with in the past, the Golden Flyers have won all 11 previous contests against the Navy and Gold.
Head Coach Dave LeBaff emphasized his belief in the team ahead of next week. “We’ve fought so hard to get back and play them [Nazareth], and they know they’re one game away from a Frozen Four,” he said.
“I expect this team to show up in Rochester, New York next week and lay it all out in a line, and regardless of outcome, be proud of everything that we did.
And I think if we play our game and we continue to do everything we’ve been doing, it’s going to be pretty hard to stop this group and I have a deep belief in that.”
Puck drop in Rochester, N.Y. is slated for 3 p.m. from the Tim Horton’s Iceplex. The winner of the game will move onto the Frozen Four, and will have a chance to clinch a berth in the NCAA Championship final.
Note: Link to the full press conference with the Colonels can be found below, courtesy of Wilkes University Athletics.
