On cruise control: Cougars sweep defending national champs in a crucial two-game series

From The Sault Star

By Gordon Anderson

 

The Sault College Cougars women’s hockey team remained undefeated after a sweep of the reigning ACHA Division 2 women’s national champion in the Assiniboine Community College Cougars.

The locals opened the two-game series with a 2-0 win on Friday before a 4-3 overtime victory on Saturday at the Rankin Arena.

“(This series) showcases just how strong our team is this year,” Cougars head coach Brianne Shunock told the Sault Star. “We just had two games against the defending champions and we swept them. This tells us a lot about our team.”

Indeed, as the Brandon-based Cougars won the ACHA Division 2 championship last March, disposing of Sault College in Division 2 pool play beforehand.

Let’s be honest, the Sault is used to having games all their own way—victories perhaps somewhat mundane as they were plus-135 in 14 games prior to the now completed weekend.

The Sault has tasted victory by 20 goals, won by 19 goals and won by six goals. For the first time this season, they weren’t permitted to have it their own way, to dictate the on-ice happenings as the Brandon club came in with a 12-0-0-0 record, ranked No. 1 in the ACHA West region.

This was a show-me series for the Sault, the No. 1 ranked club in the Central region allowed to display some honest to goodness exuberance afterwards, all the while pushing the record to 16-0-0-0.

“This weekend definitely felt different for the players, the coaching staff and even the fans,” Shunock said. “Everyone felt this weekend was so important and we knew that we were going to have two big battles and we were going to be faced with a lot of talent on the other end, again, which is something we have not faced so far this season.”

A portion of any coach’s responsibility is to determine the best personnel groupings for five-on-five and special team’s situations, awarding playing time based on merit. Again, when a team is winning by double-digit scores, it’s difficult to get an accurate measure of weakness and potential.

”Even with the coaching staff, we haven’t been faced with this type of situation this year,” Shunock said. “So, deciding who we play on special teams and who we are starting on the four-on-four overtime, those are all things we haven’t had to face. It was nice for us, as coaches, to have that pressure on us.”

The third-year head coach learned her team can play with a lead, can chase a game and still come out on top but they still have plenty of work left to do.

“(This series will) help us go back to the drawing board and focus on our defensive play and make sure we clean it up so we aren’t giving strong teams the opportunity to score,” Shunock said. “We are a skilled team, a strong team and the little mistakes we make can cause a loss. It hasn’t happened yet but it’s very possible.”

(Originally published at https://www.saultstar.com/sports/on-cruise-control-cougars-sweep-defending-national-champs-in-a-crucial-two-game-series)