All-eyes on front-running Ice

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This article was published 18/01/2024 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last fall, the Winnipeg Ice returned nine players from the roster that stormed to a Manitoba AAA U18 Female Hockey League title in 2022-23.

The defending champs are running from the front again this season but they’ve needed to make an adjustment. Everyone is gunning for the title holders.

“When you’re in first place there’s always kind of a pressure that teams are looking at you and they want to beat you just a little bit more,” forward Stephanie Jacob said Wednesday night after the sixth-place Interlake Lightning used two third-period power-play goals to shock the Ice 2-1 at the Hockey For All Centre. “But we’re just trying to take games one by one and trying not to think about too much about the standings and just play our best game all the time.”

The defeat, the team’s third regular-time loss of the season, has helped to tighten the league’s playoff race. Entering the weekend’s action, the 16-3-2 Ice held a five-point lead on the Yellowhead Chiefs and the Westman Wildcats, with the Eastman Selects and Winnipeg Avros tied for fourth place another point back.

Interlake, having beaten the Avros, Chiefs and Ice this month, trails the leaders by 16 points.

Ice head coach Eugene Kaminsky hopes his team can learn something from the setback.

“As a coach, you want to see how they can deal with a little bit of adversity,” said Kaminsky. “They were definitely frustrated and disappointed, as we were as coaches because you hate losing, there’s no doubt about it. We outshot them (42-28), so we were the better team in that sense but (Lightning) goalie (Jane Sugimoto) stood on her head and made some fantastic saves.”

A focus for opponents is finding a way to limit the effectiveness of Jacob, a speedy 17-year-old who recently committed to attend the University of Maine on an NCAA scholarship. Jacob, who was held off the scoresheet for only the second time this season Wednesday, leads the league with 25 goals and 35 points in 20 games.

“She feels terrible because she feels like she’s the one that has to carry this team and I told her, ‘I know you think you have 16 people standing on your shoulders but you do so many other things,’” said Kaminsky. “We didn’t lose this game because Steph didn’t score. We lost this game because other players didn’t score. We had a lot of opportunities.”

Jacob is poised to easily surpass the 26 goals and 42 points she produced last season while playing on a high-scoring line with Haley Braun and Ava Bergman.

There’s no doubt she’s receiving special attention from opponents.

“I definitely feel like teams are kind of following me around a bit, but I try and just keep going every game and try not to think about the stats and that type of stuff,” said Jacob, a Grade 12 student at River East Collegiate.

“No matter how good you are, I think everyone can always work on the little details of the game and I think a lot of that is in the defensive zone. You can score as many goals as you want, but if you don’t have a defensive game then there’s not really anything to it.”

With Braun and Bergman gone from the team, rookie winger Chloe Nicolas has done a superb job filling in on the club’s top line. The 15-year-old has five goals and is tied for second in league scoring with Rio Pierre and Selene Wozney, both of the Winnipeg Avros, with 26 points.

“The level of competition is way higher so I wasn’t expecting that much success but it’s been great,” said Nicolas, who was the top-rated female high school player in the 2023 Free Press coaches’ poll while playing for the Centre scolaire Léo-Rémillard Renards.

Nicolas, a Grade 10 winger, said her new team has challenged her to raise her game.

“I would say probably my play-making skills (have improved the most) because now I’m surrounded by even better players than I was last year,” said Nicolas. “Steph is always scoring goals. So, if I look and get her the puck, she’ll finish them often.”

While the Ice are blessed with firepower up front, a strong group of blue-liners led by St. Thomas University (Fredericton) recruit Katelin Moffatt will be crucial to post-season success.

“Losing never feels great,” said Moffatt, the league’s highest scoring defender with 16 points. “I think we needed to bring our intensity up (Wednesday) and bring the level of play that we can. They capitalized on some of their chances, whereas we didn’t.”

Moffatt and the Ice take on the Avros on Saturday at the Hockey For All Centre. Game time is 2:30 p.m.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca