U19 Girls Play First Home Game

The first home game for the U19 lady Ice Dawgs was held Sunday, Nov. 22 at the Valley Event Center, with a respectable hometown crowd attending to cheer them on.

Facing off against the Crosby Comets, the girls came away with a relatively easy win against their opponent. Taking advantage of a power play in the first period, Jaycee Wixson scored an unassisted goal for the first point of the game. Kennedy Schmidt scored the remaining two goals with assists from Wixson and Alex Simensen. "The girls were really good at working as a team and attacking the net," said head coach Ken Schmidt.

The Dawg defense wasn't anything to shake a stick at either. Although the girls appeared to lose some energy by the third period, the Comets weren't able to penetrate the defense and failed to score any points the entire game. Senior goalie Autumn Gault came away with a shut-out by denying the puck 24 times. The final score of the game was 3-0.

Although it didn't negatively impact the game, penalties were a little heavier on the home team side of the score sheet. The Comets served eight penalty minutes while the Lady Dawgs sat a total of twelve minutes.

Overall, Schmidt was happy with how the girls played. "Really, for only having nine practices in before their first game, they did pretty good," he said. "That's not a lot of ice time."

When asked what the girls need to improve on, without hesitation Schmidt answered, "Conditioning. They also need to work on their passing and just having game sense."

The U19 girls take a break from competition through the Thanksgiving holiday. They will be on the road and back on the ice Dec. 5 and 6, when they head to Crosby, Watford City and Williston.