Womens Hockey Wins On Sticks of Macy, Fisher
Junior transfer and sophomore sensation score pair of goals apiece; Kehler backstops 6-0 rout of Robert Morris
by Dan Myers
Issue date: 10/3/06 Section: Womens Sports
The art of scoring goals isn't foreign talent to Maggie Fisher. She led the Mavericks in that category last season.
But during Sunday night's Minnesota State women's hockey opener at All Seasons Arena, a game which saw the Mavericks defeat Robert Morris 6-0, MSU head coach Jeff Vizenor, and even Fisher herself, were shocked when she put her team up 1-0.
After junior Lindsay Macy poked the puck ahead, Fisher gained control and raced across the blue line. Locked one-on-one with a defender, she dropped the puck to a charging Macy who passed on a point blank shot to slip a pass back to Fisher, who flipped the puck into the net for the Mavericks first goal of the season.
"I think everyone in the building thought Mace was going to shoot that one," Vizenor said.
"Me too," Fisher said. "When I passed it back to her, I figured she was going to go upper-glove side. But sure enough, the puck was right back on my stick."
"The whole place thought I was going to shoot," Macy said. "I thought I'd toss it off once and get them off me for the rest of the game."
It wasn't the last time during the game the two would connect, either.
In fact, Fisher scored her second of the game at 15:50 of the third, after the game was well out of reach. Macy assisted on that one too, as did senior captain Shera Vis, who also assisted on two other goals.
But this wasn't a one-way street.
Macy put the Mavericks up 2-0 at 14:58 of the second period on a goal that was the exact opposite of the first. Taking the puck down the left side, Macy muscled her way through a defenseman and to the crease, sliding the puck through RMU goalie Heather Rossi's pads.
The goal was critical for MSU, and set the tone for a third period, which saw the Mavericks score four goals.
"We play different styles, but for some reason they fit really well," Fisher said.
"We work so well together," added Macy, who scored the final goal of the game with just 12 seconds remaining.
Vis and Noelle Needham scored the Mavs' third and fourth goals, respectively. Freshman Ida Clark added a pair of assists and Amanda Stohr chipped in a helper of her own.
"I think it's about what I expected," Vizenor said. "I expected to come out and get a victory, do some things well and score some goals. And we did."
Junior net minder Brit Kehler made 21 saves to earn her eighth career shutout.
"I don't think she allowed a second shot all night," Vizenor said. "She made some nice saves and our defense played well in front of her. I was very pleased with our defensive system as a whole."
The Mavericks will need to play a near flawless series this weekend if they hope to gain points in their first conference action of the season against No. 7 Minnesota-Duluth. The Bulldogs have yet to play a game this season, and bring with them freshman goalie Kim Martin, the net minder who backstopped Team Sweden in their upset victory over Team USA in the 2006 Olympics.
Face-off from All Seasons Arena will be 7:07 p.m. Friday and 3:07 p.m. Saturday.
Dan Myers is the Reporter Sports Editor