19U skate their way to Champions at Winter Classic Tourney
Jarrett Wold
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The Oilers hosted the Winter Classic Tournament last weekend in Watford competing against 8 teams from 3 states plus Canada.
Friday the girls faced off against the Aberdeen Lady Cougars. The girls got off to a fast start thanks to Senior Kaylor Knutson. Kaylor converted a nice pass from Berkley Wirtz and Emree Wold with a twisted wrister pass the goalie’s right pad. Wirtz would add 2 more goals in the first period. The first one was a simple shot on goal that the goalie couldn’t handle. The second was a high heater stick side after a quick chip pass from Maddy Greenhaw. The period ended 3-1 Oilers.
Aberdeen would cut into the lead midway thought the second, but Eastyn Wold would answer back with only 6 seconds left in the period. Good defensive positioning by Knutson, a quick pass to Eastyn with one player to beat ended with Eastyn alone with the goalie who she deked for the goal. The Oilers would not score in the third but held on to get the win 4-3. Sierra Blegen was great in net with 41 saves.
The Oilers had the 8 a.m. game Saturday vs Bismarck next. The Oilers would dominate the game start to finish but struggled to put the puck in the net. A turnover by Bismarck lead to the first goal of the game. Eastyn picked up the puck on the wall and hit Emree in stride turning into a breakaway, the goalie made the first save but the rebound came to Eastyn and she made no mistake sniping the top right corner to give the Oilers the lead, assisted by Knutson and Emree. The 1-0 score held until early in the third period. Berkley was listening to the message about shooting low, she stole the puck from Bismarck, made 2 players miss and slid the puck between the goalie’s legs for the final goal of the game. Blegen was only asked to save 12 shots to get her first shutout of the weekend.
The Brandon Wheaties were standing in the Oilers path to the semi-finals Saturday night. The Oilers needed to win to make the semis. After a scoreless first, Aiden Olson got the Oilers going. Avery Pelton started the play with a easy pass to Wirtz, Berkley hit Aiden for the breakaway. Aiden made 2 quick moves and had an empty net to slide the puck into. I’ve written it many times; face-offs are extremely important in hockey. You can see Kaylor and Eastyn planning before the puck drop. Kaylor goes forward, chips the puck to the right, Eastyn does the rest, like clockwork Eastyn finishes the job with a deke goal. 2-0 Oilers after 2.
Knutson blocked a shot at the point to set herself up on the rush, when she knew she couldn’t do it alone she made a nice drop pass to Eastyn, who slid it across to Emree, who beat the goalie stick side for the 3-0 lead. Lauren Melland passed it to Eastyn to set up the last goal for the Oilers. Eastyn made a lap around the zone, confusing the Brandon defense before a quick back hand shot top shelf. Blegen, hot between the pipes, had another shutout stopping 25 shots.
That win put the Oilers into the semi-finals vs Richland. After a scoreless first period, the Oilers caught fire in the second. Lauren made a great play on the wall to set herself up for the shot, she put it towards the goal low and hard. Eastyn was screening the goalie and was able to tip it in. Lauren picked up another assist passing to Aiden, who fed the puck over to Wirtz on a 2-1. Wirtz made the correct decision to shoot, and she beat the goalie off the far post. 2-0 after 2.
Emree and Eastyn proved again why face-offs are important. Noticing a lonely defenseman on the opening face-off of the third period, Emree pushed the faceoff forward, Eastyn only had to beat one flat-footed player to get the breakaway goal, 7 seconds into the period. That was the final score, 3-0 Oilers, Blegen with 3 shutouts in a row had 32 saves.
The win set up a rematch against Aberdeen for the championship. This game was the fifth game in 48 hours for the Oilers, a major test for a team with a short bench vs a team with 18 skaters. The Oiler’s legs weren’t great to start the game but midway through the first period, the girls’ sticks caught fire. A big defensive play from Wirtz, got the puck to Lyrik Olson, she made the pass to Aiden to start the rush. Aiden played the 2-1 perfectly by waiting for the defender to take the pass away, drove to the net and sniped the goalie glove side. Emree scored next going coast to coast after a great defensive play, skating past the defenders and beating the goalie with a smooth deke. After another good face-off, Aiden blocked an Aberdeen pass. She picked up the puck and executed the exact same 2-1 that she did for her first goal, this time from the opposite side to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. The Cougars scored late to finish the period 3-1. A quick pass from Melland to Eastyn got the lead back to 3. Eastyn picked up the puck, beat the defense before putting an accurate shot on her backhand pass the goalie pad. The Cougars answered back, the period would end 4-2 Oilers.
A short pass from Knutson to Eastyn and Eastyn to Emree put her on a rush all alone. That didn’t stop her from cutting through the Cougar defense and beating the goalie high glove side to get the lead back to 3. The Oilers put the game on ice on the power play. Emree picked up a loose puck, skated around her own net before hitting Eastyn with a long pass. Eastyn made a few quick moves before blasting a shot past the goalie, low glove side. Blegen was great again, saving 36 shots, 21 of them in the second period alone.
This team is the first Oiler team to win their home Winter Classic Tournament. The girls were 5-0 on the weekend, allowing only 6 goals, scoring 17. They are heading to Hazen this weekend for their yearly 19U jamboree, where they play 4 league games in 3 days.
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