Yellowjackets complete Finlandia sweep

Dani Schultz scored a goal and added an assist in Sunday's 4-1 win over Finlandia.

Box Score

Yellowjackets 4, Finlandia 1

On a frigid Sunday afternoon while most people were hunkered down at home watching football and anticipating the season premiere of "Downtown Abbey," the Yellowjacket women's hockey team was playing a matinee, taking on Finlandia in the second game of their weekend set at Houghton County Arena, where the temperature inside was likely not much warmer than that outside.

No matter.

Despite falling behind in the contest, the Yellowjackets rallied to score four goals in the final 27 minutes of the rapidly played game to pick up a 4-1 win and complete the weekend sweep of the Lions.

The Yellowjackets are now unbeaten in their last six games (4-0-2).

In the first period the Yellowjackets enjoyed a 7-6 edge in shots on goal but the teams went to the locker room scoreless. More than half of the second period was also without a goal before Finlandia broke through to open the scoring. Brock Nelsen put the Lions up 1-0 with a goal 11:23 into the period.

The Yellowjackets came right back and evened the score when freshman Hailey Adair (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) scored her fourth goal of the season at 13:57 to make it 1-1. Just 31 seconds later the Yellowjackets took the lead for good when, with the team's playing four-on-four, Karen Larson (Blumenort, Manitoba/Steinbach Regional Secondary) scored her third goal of the weekend at 14:28. Larson's eighth goal of the season was assisted by Kelsey Firkus (Chilliwack, British Columbia/Chilliwack Senior Secondary) and Dani Schultz (Morris, Minn./Morris Area) and the Yellowjackets were up by a goal after two periods.

Schultz gave the Yellowjackets some insurance at 7:08 of the third period, scoring her team-leading ninth goal of the season to make it 3-1. The Yellowjackets closed the scoring at 15:22 on the power play when Firkus and Amanda Coey (Brandon, Manitoba/Crocus Plains) set up Alison Shrift (Traverse City, Mich./West High School) for her second of the season to make the final score 4-1.

Schultz, with her goal and assist had her second multi-point game of the weekend, while Firkus had a three-assist effort on Sunday and has seven points in her last seven games.

The Yellowjackets took four penalties for eight minutes in the game, while Finlandia was whistled six times for 12 minutes. The Yellowjackets went 1-for-5 on the power play and were a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Shanley Peters (Gnadenthal, Manitoba/Garden Valley Collegiate) earned her second win of the weekend, making 18 saves to improve to 8-2-4 on the season. Breanna Merriam made 33 stops for Finlandia.

The Yellowjackets (9-2-4, 2-2-2 WIAC) will have a non-conference home-and-home series next weekend with the College of St. Benedict. On Friday they will travel to St. Cloud, Minn. to take on the Blaze, with game time scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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