Longchamps steady on the blueline, but Ooks pick up road win

Brent Forster - RDC

Thursday evening, the Red Deer College Queens Hockey team hosted the NAIT Ooks at the NexSource Centre in Sylvan Lake and the opening period featured the bulk of the goal scoring. NAIT led 3-1 after 20 minutes, they added another goal in the second period and despite the Queens pressing in the third period, the Ooks picked up a 4-1 road victory. 

Tracie Kikuchi started in net for the RDC Queens while Tara Bouvette got the nod for the NAIT Ooks.

The Ooks began the game with some jump but Kikuchi was sharp. A Queens power play swayed the momentum in their favour but they couldn't beat Bouvette. Shortly after the man advantage expired, Victoria Johnston hit the scoresheet for the Queens 4:21 into the first period. Camryn Wallan picked up the lone assist. Johnston, a first-year Bachelor of Science Pre-Dentistry student, took a wrist shot from inside the blueline and it eluded Bouvette on the glove side. At 10:14, NAIT's Brittney Savard tied the contest 1-1 on the power play. Savard's backhand from the slot found an opening on the right side of the net. On a goal mouth scramble, Natsumi Kurokawa scored with 7:32 left on the clock to give NAIT a 2-1 lead. On another power play, Verca Kuzelova expanded NAIT's lead and put the Ooks up 3-1 with 1:44 remaining in the first period. 

The Red Deer College Queens started the second period with energy and had 3 straight shots within minutes. But it was the Ooks who pulled ahead 4-1, 6:49 into the second period. With traffic in front of Kikuchi, Verca Kuzelova took a wrister from the high slot that found the right side of the net.  The Queens came close to pulling within a pair later in the period. Jade Petrie spotted an open Jordyn Burgar with less than 3 minutes in the middle frame. Burgar wasted no time in getting the wrist shot off from the left side, but Bouvette made a blocker save. 

The RDC Queens pressured the Ooks and had more zone time in the third period. They had several good opportunities but couldn't find the back of the net. The NAIT Ooks picked up a 4-1 road win. Over 3 periods, NAIT outshot RDC 33-22. The Queens were without Emily Lougheed, who was nursing an injury. 

Catherine Longchamps was named the player-of-the-game for the RDC Queens. The Bachelor of Education student was solid on defence, jumped into the rush several times and earned time on the Queens special teams. Verca Kuzelova received the honour for the NAIT Ooks.

"Catherine is a steady defender and a hard player to play against. She has an active stick and continues to get better like all of our first-year players," said Kelly Coulter, head coach of the RDC Queens. "Our first-year players are very coachable and their biggest adjustment is getting used to the pace of the game. That takes time and comes with experience."

Coulter would like to see a better start but liked the play in the latter half of the game. "We have to be better prepared from the puck drop and be ready to execute. When we don't execute, good teams can expose the mistakes and that's what NAIT did," said Coulter. "We have to continue and learn to move forward from there. As the game progressed, we did play better but getting down early against a good team makes it hard to dig ourselves out of that hole."

In the rematch, Coulter would like to see more pucks on net and puck possession. "Our offence has to generate more shots and put pucks in areas where we can retrieve them," said Coulter. "It's tough to win a hockey game when we get 3 to 5 shots a period. We need to direct pucks on net or possess the puck and wear teams down." 

The RDC Queens (10 points) will face-off against the NAIT Ooks (8 points) on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in Edmonton.