Lake Forest’s Spellmire and Finlandia’s Smiddy
Earn Final NCHA Women’s Hockey Weekly Honors
Lake Forest College senior Olivia Spellmire (F - Bloomington, Minn.) is the NCHA Women’s Offensive Player of the Week and Finlandia University sophomore Annah Smiddy (G - North Muskegon, Mich.) is the NCHA Women’s Defensive Player of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday.
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Spellmire is the NCHA Offensive Player of the Week for the league-best third time this season after continuing to come up big for the Foresters. She led Lake Forest to a pair of victories over St. Scholastica at home this past weekend, helping the Foresters climb over the Saints in the NCHA standings to finish in second place. She scored two goals, including one on the power play, in Friday’s 5-0 triumph. The league leader in points (19-22-41; 9 more than 2nd place) then assisted on the first goal before lighting the lamp for the game-winner to break a 1-1 tie in her Senior Day game, a 4-1 win, on Saturday.
Smiddy becomes the first Finlandia student-athlete to be named the NCHA Defensive Player of the Week this year, helping the team cap the regular season on a high note with a weekend sweep of Aurora University that gave the squad its highest season victory total since 2009-10. She allowed just one goal in the two games (0.50 GAA), posting a .982 save percentage after making 55 saves on 56 shot attempts. She recorded 26 stops in Friday’s win before topping that with 29 more in a 4-0 shutout to close out the campaign. In total, she allowed just one goal on 11 power-play opportunities.
2017-18 NCHA WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS
Sierra Meiners, Finlandia
Meiners closed out her career in grand fashion helping her team to a sweep over Aurora. She had the game-winning goal on Friday (Feb. 16) and then Saturday (Feb. 17), Meiners scored twice to tie the career goal mark of 35 by Katelyn McLean (2008-10). She was one short of tying the single-season record for the second straight year and finished with 54 career points (5th best).
Lexi Pyykkonen, St. Norbert
Pyykkonen had one goal and one assist in Friday’s 4-4 tie with Northland and then had two goals in Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Lumberjills. Pyykkonen leads St. Norbert this season with 10 goals and 19 points.
Jacque Rogers, Lake Forest
Rogers was nearly perfect in goal as Lake Forest swept visiting St. Scholastica 5-0 and 4-1 over the weekend. She made a dozen saves on Friday while earning her program record-tying sixth shutout of the season. Rogers then turned away 27 of 28 shots on goal on Saturday to finish the weekend with a .975 save percentage.
Lindsey Strainis, Marian
Strainis capped off another strong regular season with a 1.54 goals against average and kept Marian in a pair of defensive battles against No. 4/7 Adrian. Strainis stopped 73 shots only allowing three goals to go with a .961 save percentage. The Green Bay, Wis. native currently holds the lowest goals against average of any Sabre women’s hockey student-athlete in program history.
Kate Turner, Adrian
Turner finished the final weekend of the regular season with a 2-0 record against Marian. Made 15 saves in the 2-1 win Friday night that helped the Bulldogs clinch their fourth consecutive Kronschnabel Trophy. She made 12 saves on Saturday, tallying her ninth shutout this season, which ties an Adrian College season record.
Natasha Wanless, Concordia
Wanless had one of the most productive games in program history Saturday, tying the Falcons record for points (5) and goals (4) in a game. She scored in each period, producing two goals in the final stanza as the Falcons secured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Slaats Cup Playoffs.
Ellie Woodman, Concordia
Woodman recorded three points in two NCHA games this weekend for the Falcons, posting a +6 plus/minus rating in the process. She played a role in both goals in Friday’s 2-1 win over Trine, including tallying the game-winning score. Woodman would add a goal in Saturday’s win, helping the Falcons secure the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Slaats Cup Playoffs.
Kristi Zink, Adrian
Zink’s first point came in Friday’s 2-1 win over Marian when she was the primary assist on the game-winning goal that helped Adrian claim its fourth straight Kronschnabel Trophy. She would then score the game-winning goal on Saturday.