Blades struggle over weekend

“We definitely had a lot of mental breakdowns”

by Than Acuff

It was supposed to be a walk last weekend in Gunnison. The WEHA Blades U19 girls hockey team was sitting near the top of the league standings with a record of 8-0 and were set to host the New Mexico Mustangs who were mired in the cellar of the league standings with a record of 0-7-1.

But a trip to San Jose, Calif. the weekend before tweaked the Blades and while the trip was successful, it did have its downside, as they lost both Izzie Dethloff and Kendl Santelli to injuries.

As a result, the Blades were far from full strength for the games against New Mexico, but they have plenty of younger talent to call into action when needed.

“We usually have two subs on the bench to rotate into our lines and I figured they would be able to handle it,” says coach Tony Lambert. “But, with just two lines it is tough to maintain high caliber hockey and when people are injured, you have some players that end up playing in different positions.”

The Blades opened their two-game home stand against New Mexico on Saturday, January 23 and what transpired was a mix of problems stemming from injuries and a bit of over-confidence.

“I think our girls drastically underestimated some of the lesser teams getting better,” says Lambert.

The teams battled through two periods of scoreless hockey before the Blades finally broke through in the third minute of the final period, when Bradley Santelli blasted a shot from the point for a 1-0 lead.

Still, the Blades struggled to build any cushion and it wasn’t until Maddie Lambert scored an empty net goal in the final minute that the Blades could breathe a sigh of relief, sealing the 2-0 win.

“It was a combination of being flat and getting back into the scenario of one person doing all of the work and the others just sitting back and watching,” explains Lambert. “We gave up a lot of 50/50 pucks and missed the net a ton.”

The tight game proved to be more than an anomaly though, as New Mexico brought their A-game to the ice on Sunday, January 24 and the Blades’ struggles continued.

New Mexico opened the game flying and looking to get their players in behind the Blades’ defense on their breakouts. While the plan appeared to show signs of success, the Blades defense started to close off things at the blue line and exploited the New Mexico attack. As New Mexico looked to push up ice, Elizabeth Shaw picked off the breakout pass and found Sierra D’Aquila open in front for D’Aquila to finish for a 1-0 Blades lead in the first period.

The Blades picked up their effort for the remainder of the period to keep pace with New Mexico and Anika Anderson came up with two big saves to maintain the Blades’ tenuous lead heading into the second period.

Lapses in judgment then plagued the Blades in the second period. While the two teams traded off rushes and both goalies came up with key saves, New Mexico eventually tied it up as they found a player open in the high slot and she roofed the puck to tie the game 1-1 in the 12th minute.

The Blades responded two minutes later as Alexis Duke battled for the puck deep in New Mexico’s zone and dropped it to Santelli at the point for another blast and a 2-1 Blades lead.

But the Blades could not find an insurance goal as New Mexico was quick to close down on the puck and set the pace. Their efforts paid off once again as they rushed the puck up-ice to get it into the corner and found a player open in the high slot for another strike, tying the game once again 2-2 and then holding on to finish with the tie.

“We definitely had a lot of mental breakdowns,” says Lambert. “They tended to overthink things rather than just play.”

The Blades return to the road this weekend for two more games as they head north to take on Steamboat, one of four teams with a legitimate shot at the league title.

“They’re a very good team and we’ll definitely have our hands full,” says Lambert. “If we can come out of it 1-1, I’ll be psyched.”