Falcon Finish Third in Competitive NCHA

March 9, 2006

By Tara Sowle
UWRF Sports Information

The Falcon women's hockey team finished their 2005-2006 season with a 14-11-2 overall record and an 8-6-1 record in NCHA play. UWRF placed third in the highly competitive NCHA.

"It was a season of highs and lows," said Falcon Coach Joe Cranston. "Beating Gustavus and Stevens Point was fun. Playing Middlebury in overtime in their rink was fun. Playing our final game of the year against Lake Forest was also a good way to end the year, especially for the three seniors."

The three seniors the Falcons will be losing are forwards Leah Baron, Lou Paulson and Lindsay O'Keefe. All were major contributors. Both Paulson and O'Keefe were named to the second All-NCHA team. Baron earned honorable mention.

The Falcons will be losing a combine 12 years of playing experience. Paulson finished her four years with the Falcons with 90 points and is the all-time leading scoring in Falcon history. She appeared in 108 career games and scored 48 goals and 42 assists. The 48 goals is also a career record. In 2006 she scored 11 goals and 17 points. O'Keefe led her team in scoring this year with eight goals and 21 points. O'Keefe is second all-time in scoring at UWRF with 88 points (43-45) in 109 games. Her 14 power-play goals is a school record. Baron played in 109 career games and scored 30 goals and finished with 62 career points.

"It will be hard to replace their leadership and dedication more than their contributions in points. I can recruit some kids to come here and score goals, but it would be hard to recruit three people with better character than Leah, Louie and Lindsay," said Cranston.

Next year the Falcons return some key players.

Junior defender Jenny Wallace was the only Falcon to earn first All-NCHA team honors. Wallace, who was an AHCA first team All-American in 2005, played all 25 regular season games and finished second on the team in scoring. She had eight goals and 19 points. She scored three power-play goals and two game-winners. Sophomore forward Jenna Scanlon and freshman defender Leigh Landgraph both earned honorable mention to the 2006 All-NCHA team. Scanlon led the Falcons with 13 goals and had 16 points while Landgraf had three goals and 12 points in her first collegiate season. Sophomore goalie Amber Lindner will return with the most playing experience. She finished this year with a 12-8-1 record. She had a .916 saves percentage and a 2.35 goals against average.

"I have no idea what next year will bring. I think it might be somewhat of a rebuilding year. We return a pretty good defensive core and have some good forwards. I would expect to have at least 10 or 12 new faces at tryouts next year," said Cranston.

The Falcons started the season with an impressive 3-1 win over the second ranked team in the U.S. College Hockey Online Div. III poll, Gustavus Adolphus.   The Falcons went on to beat Augsburg the next day (2-1). After a 5-2 loss to St. Thomas, the Falcons put together a four game winning streak. The Falcons then exchanged wins with Stevens Point (2-1) and Finlandia (5-1), before the Falcons racked up wins against St Mary's (5-2) and Neumann (3-1).   A close battle with Middlebury (3-2) that went into overtime started a three game losing streak before a 2-1 win over Lake Forest brought them back into the win column. The Falcons then lost to Stevens Point (4-1) and Superior (2-1), before starting another four game winning streak. The final two regular season games took the Falcons to Superior where they lost both games (5-2, 4-3). The Falcons went into NCHA Tournament seeded third and left in third behind Stevens Point and Superior. They won their final game over Lake Forest 4-2.