The Wayne State Warriors women’s hockey team suffered a 0-3 loss against the Bemidji State Beavers on Friday night in the season opener at the City Sports Center arena in Detroit, Mich
“On our power play, we didn’t create much offense in the first two periods, [neither] power play or five-on-five,” said Warriors’ coach Jim Fetter.
The Warriors, who went 9-14-4 last season, were 0-for-6 on the power play. However, they killed six of seven penalties.
Bemidji State’s Sadie Lundquist scored the first goal of the season with just one second left on a man advantage midway through the first period. Lundquist’s goal, which was assisted by sisters Marl and Erika Wheelhouse, went just above the right glove of Wayne State goaltender Delayne Brian. Soon after, Emily Erickson put the Beavers up by two after a fluke goal that beat Brian.
Although the Warriors had a number of odd man rushes, the second period went scoreless for both teams.
“We just got to capitalize,” said Warriors sophomore Gina Buquet, who almost cut the Beavers’ lead by one on a short-handed breakaway. “Sometimes you get, them sometimes you don’t; you just have to play it to the whistle. You can’t stop and just fight for it really.”
Penalties accumulated in favor of the Beavers as the home team allowed them four power play opportunities.
“We just need to stay out of the {penalty} box,” Fetter said. “It just wears down our players, so if we can stay out of the box, hopefully we’ll have a little more gas.
“It was a matter of us adjusting to the speed today. Last week, we played York, who’s not as fast, and I think it took us a little bit of time to adjust.”
By the start third period, the Warriors seemed to gain some momentum and possess the puck in Beavers’ territory. Erin Cody scored to give the Beavers a two-goal advantage at 9:38 left in the third after a short scrum in front of Wayne State’s net, which slowed down the Warriors.
Beavers’ goaltender Zazana Tomcikova earned her ninth career shutout, while Brian stopped a total of 30 shots. Despite the low numbers in the final score, Bemidji State outshot Wayne State 33-27.
The Warriors will finish the series against the Beavers on Saturday at 2 p.m.
