ADRIAN, Mich. - This weekend, the (RV) Adrian NCAA women's hockey team will host St. Norbert College in its regular-season finale. The 2022 Kronschnabel Trophy recipients face-off against the Green Knights on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., before closing the series on Saturday at Noon.
The latter day of the match-up will also serve at program's 'Senior Day!" Prior to puck-drop, the team will recognize and honor the outstanding careers of its six seniors;
Jessica VonRuden,
Julia Barrett,
Jessica Anderson,
Emily Stemple,
Maya Tupper and
Denisa Jandova.
Adrian enters the weekend fresh off of clinching its seventh Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) regular-season championship against Aurora on Sunday. Not only did the 'Dogs sweep the Spartans in back-to-back days, they also turned in consecutive shutouts behind the efforts of NCHA Defensive Player of the Week,
Sophie Goldberg.
St. Norbert had itself a busy weekend, as well, defeating Trine on Friday and Saturday before knocking off Aurora on the road on Monday.
The Knights (17-6, 11-3 NCHA) come into their final series tied with Lake Forest for the conference's second seed. While both teams have already claimed home ice advantage in the upcoming Slaats Cup quarterfinals, it will come down to this weekend to determine who secures the seed outright.
Morgan Olson, whose 19 goals are the most among the NCHA's leading scorers, paces St. Norbert with 24 total points and five powerplay goals. The sophomore is flanked by Eve Parker and Ava Jaschke, the only skaters on the Green Knights' roster with 10, or more assists.
Between the pipes, Brynn Waisman (9-4-0) actively ranks second in the league in save percentage (0.943), third in goals-against average (1.54) and fourth in win percentage (0.692). In each of those categories, there sits a Bulldog netminder either directly behind her or in front of her.
The local's Jandova currently leads the NCHA in each of those three groupings, while Goldberg ranks second in goals-against average (1.06) and win percentage (0.773), and third in save percentage (0.941).
Offensively,
Karmen Anderson became the tenth different skater in the NCHA to crack the 20-point threshold last weekend, and has compiled nine goals and a team-high 11 assists.
Une Bjelland remains at the head of the Bulldogs' goal-scoring regime with 11 tallies, followed by VonRuden (10), who snapped a six-game drought with a mark against Aurora on Saturday.
As a team, Adrian sports the conference's number one scoring average at 3.91 goals per outing. St. Norbert is fourth (2.91). The Green Knights, however, hold the edge on the man-advantage, 18.3 percent to 15.2 percent, but they will have to deal with the black and gold's league-leading penalty kill (0.932).
Both of this weekend's contests will include live stats through adrianbulldogs.com, and live video through Adrian College TV.
Those planning to attend Saturday's "Senior Day!" celebration should plan for the festivities to begin roughly 15 minutes before puck-drop.
