Top 15 moments from Mountie Hockey 2011-12

Top 15 moments from Mountie hockey 2011-12

2011-12 was a season which ended in disappointment for the Mount Allison Womens’ Hockey team as they fell 3-0 in the AUS championship game, but the record-setting season will not soon be forgotten.

Some incredible individual performances, combined with some amazing team efforts, helped put together the finest season in the ten-year history of the program.

As fifth-year defender Sara Diamond admitted after the championship game, it was tough to believe where they found themselves after the rough seasons they endured early in her career.

This week’s blog celebrates the top fifteen highlights from the season.

15. The outpouring of support preceding the championship game. It was absolutely incredible to see how many other Mountie athletes, students, and alumni were talking about the game. On Facebook, Twitter, and even over Webmail, the congratulations and well-wishes were flooding in to the Mounties. A fan bus was thrown together in about half an hour (very impressive for late on a Saturday night), and several Mount Allison administrators, professors, students, and alumni were spotted in the crowd for Sunday’s final, creating the best atmosphere that I have ever experienced at a Mountie hockey game.

14. The third line explodes against Dalhousie. February 11 at home, the line of Megan Entwistle and sisters Chelsea and Courtney King combined for four goals and nine points in a 7-4 victory over the Tigers. The offensive capitalization for this trio was a welcome sight to Head Coach Zach Ball, who had mentioned to me only the weekend before that sooner or later that line would soon start taking advantage of their opportunities in front of the net. They sure did that, with Entwistle recording a goal and two assists, Chelsea notching two goals, and Courtney adding a goal on a penalty shot to her three helpers. What was more a welcome sight to Ball was that he was able to get a big offensive game from this line, which epitomized the balanced offensive attack of the Mounties over the last half of the season.

13. Lauren Oickle’s goal while falling down vs Dalhousie. Oickle corralled the puck at her own blueline and sped through the neutral zone before blowing past the Dalhousie defender down the right wing. The left-handed shooter fired a hard shot into the near top corner of the net just as she lost her balance, spilling to the ice. It was the fourth goal in the 7-4 win mentioned above, and was the second of three goals in three minutes, showing the quick-strike potential of Oickle and the Mounties.

12. Outscoring Saint Mary’s 26-3 over four games. Looking back to two seasons ago when the Mounties only scored 37 goals in 24 games, it was nice to see the Mounties show their dominance over another team. Wins of 4-1, 8-1, 5-0 and 9-1 asserted the Mounties’ position over the Huskies, and it is worth noting that five different Mounties recorded multi-goal games against Saint Mary’s over the four game season series. Not only did Mt. A dominate on the scoreboard, but they controlled the faceoff circle against the Huskies, winning over 54% of the draws. Katelyn Morton led the Mounties offensively during the season series, while Lindsay James notched five points in four games against SMU.

11. After facing a nation-leading 879 shots in her sophomore season, Meghan Corley-Byrne had a much easier time this season, and helped by capable backup Jenelle Hulan, the goaltending duo combined to post the second-highest save percentage in the CIS, stopping 92.8% of the shots they faced. The team they were behind? The McGill Martlets, led by two-time Olympic gold-medal winning netminder Charline Labonte. Corley-Byrne finished fourth among individual save percentages (93.7%), and we’ll hear more about Hulan in a moment. A stingier defence, coupled with an easier workload and a stronger offensive attack no doubt contributed to the boosted save percentage, but ultimately the save percentage comes down to the talented netminders which the Mounties have been able to recruit over the past few seasons. The steady blueline was led by veteran Meg Davies, while Beth Deveaux stepped in admirably into a second-pairing role, joining the team at Christmas.

10. Jenelle Hulan continues to dominate Dalhousie. The third-year netminder didn’t get many opportunities this year, behind two-time first-team all-star Corley-Byrne, but she seems to enjoy playing against the Tigers. This season, she went 4-0-0 against Dalhousie, while facing over 30 shots three of the four times. In her career, she has gone 8-1-1 while facing the Tigers, so it hasn’t been a surprise over the past two seasons especially to see Corley-Byrne on the bench when the Mounties and Tigers face off. Hulan has always filled in very capably when called on, and will enter her fourth year in the fall, and will hope to log more minutes with the graduation of Corley-Byrne.

9. Six different Mounties scoring their first CIS goals. Rookies Emily van Diepen, Riki Krentz, Kristy Lanigan and Hailey Munroe all found the net in their first season, while sophomore defenders Meg Cameron and Carmanah Hunter scored their first goals as Mounties. Something that is always a thrill at any level of hockey is scoring the first goal, and Ball must have been ecstatic that so many players on the roster were able to get on the scoresheet, and again this truly exemplifies the balanced scoring attack which the Mounties possessed this season.

8. Snapping U de Moncton’s winning streak. Prior to their meeting on November 20 in Sackville, the U de Moncton Aigles Bleues were 8-0-0, but Kristen Cooze and the Mounties had something to say about that. With the game tied 2-2 in the third, Cooze carried the puck through the neutral zone, danced around both Moncton blueliners, and deposited a forehand shot past the Moncton goalie to give the Mounties a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. This was very much a statement game for the Mounties, showing the league they were ready to do more than just compete this season, and they backed up that statement following the game, only losing three more times in regulation the rest of the season.

7. Courtney King’s tying goal vs. STU in playoffs. It’s tough to overlook this goal’s importance to the Mounties’ season. When King jammed home a shot with 54 seconds left in the third period to tie the game 1-1 against the Tommies, it gave the Mounties a chance to win in overtime. While they did not do so, the overtime loss granted them one point in the playoff tournament standings. This allowed the Mounties to advance to the Championship game when they beat Moncton in regulation the following day. Without this goal with time running out, it’s hard to see a scenario where the Mounties would have qualified for the final game.

6. Katelyn Morton’s beauty vs U de M in playoffs. Down 2-1 in the second, Morton took the puck behind her own net, and gathered a head of steam up the right wing, skating all the way into the offensive zone. After crossing the blue line, Morton dangled around the Moncton defender before embarrassing the goaltender, backhanding a shot top shelf for a very important goal, her second of the game at that point. Morton would score again to complete the hat trick, but this goal has got to be considered as one of the goals of the playoffs, if not the entire season for the Mounties and AUS.

5. Comeback win at U de M to keep winning streak intact. On February 22, the Mounties found themselves down 2-1 after two periods, putting their five-game winning streak in jeopardy. With just over one minute remaining in regulation, Jenica Bastarache’s shot bounced in to tie the game 2-2. Not long into overtime, Courtney King deflected Ashlyn Somers’ shot in to extend the winning streak to six games. This winning streak would close off the regular season at seven games, and this game maybe put a seed of doubt in Moncton’s brains while motivating the Mounties, who had beaten nationally-ranked Moncton twice at this point. And boy would this be important.

4. Lauren Oickle’s natural hat-trick in UPEI. Facing a 1-0 deficit after one period, the Mounties turned to their captain to put on a show in Charlottetown. Her first goal, six and a half minutes into the second, was a rebound opportunity from the slot. The second was an absolute cannon from the left wing which the UPEI goaltender never had a chance at seeing, and she scored her third goal in a row working a beautiful give-and-go with Meg Cameron on the powerplay. As much as the winning streak mentioned previously was about the Mounties’ team success, Oickle really came on strong during that February streak, scoring seven goals and four assists, while not taking a single penalty during the streak.

3. Katelyn Morton’s 4 goals in 1 period vs SMU. While some people were surprised to see Morton in the lineup (she had missed the previous two games due to injury), Morton wasted absolutely no time making her impact. Starting only 13 seconds into the game, the fourth-year winger scored all four goals in the first period, and added an assist on the first goal of the second while pacing the Mounties to a 9-1 win. It was her second of three hat-tricks on the season, helping Morton on her way to leading the Mounties in goals for the fourth year in a row. Her offensive production helped the emergence of linemates Ashlyn Somers and Lisa Riley, who both set career numbers in goals, assists and points.

2. Comeback win at St FX. I had this at number one until three days ago, but this is likely the biggest regular season win in Mounties history. Down 2-0 after one period, it may have looked to some like the perennially nationally-ranked X-Women were on their way to another easy win. The second period saw the momentum begin to shift, as goals by Oickle and Cooze knotted the game up 2-2 before an unusual goal put the Mounties ahead. In a rare 3-on-3 situation, Courtney King was able to knock Meg Cameron’s shot into the twine to give the Mounties yet another comeback victory on the season. As it would turn out, it was the second win of their long winning streak, and was also the first ever regulation win over St FX and first ever win at St FX for the Mounties.

1.       Comeback win against U de M in playoffs. Following Saturday’s emotional playoff win, this was a no-brainer for number one. Facing potential elimination from the playoffs with either a loss or any overtime, needing a regulation win to advance to their first ever AUS final, the Mounties put together one of the most thrilling and emotional playoff comebacks in AUS history. Down 2-0 during the first period, and 4-2 after two periods, the Mounties scored three unanswered goals in the third to complete the comeback over the Aigles Bleues. Katelyn Morton’s goal described at number six tied the game 2-2, but Moncton scored twice before the second period ended. Morton scored the first of the epic comeback goals early in the third, and Meg Davies scored a weird one soon after. After her point shot got deflected high in the air, the puck spiralled down, landing perfectly between the knees of U de M goalie Kathy Desjardins before rolling into the net, tying the game 4-4. With less than seven minutes to go, and the Mounties on the powerplay, Emily van Diepen’s shot was stopped, but Ashlyn Somers was all over the rebound, putting it top corner and blowing the roof off of the Dalhousie arena. The most important game and goal in Mountie history propelled them into the final game, where they would meet their disappointing end, but this is without a doubt many Mountie fans and AUS fans won’t be forgetting for a while.