Northern Edge explodes 10-3 in home opener Nov. 25, 2009 No matter what the sport is, every team wants to make an impressive start in front of its home crowd, and on Tuesday the Antigo-Rhinelander Northern Edge team did just that with a 10-2 victory over Tomahawk in Antigo.
“The real difference in the game was Tomahawk had an inexperience goaltender. I thought we were pretty evenly matched, to be honest,” Northern Edge coach Will Losch said.
Hatchets goalie, Amber Welch is in her first year playing in the net.
The Edge skaters took advantage, scoring on 10 of their 23 shots. Nikki Kloes got things started with a power play goal at 5:26 into the first period. Katie Falk had the assist.
Holly Trembley and Kloes added goals in the period, for a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
The Edge let up a bit in the second period, getting out shot 16-8, but managed to outscore the Hatchets 3-2.
Trembley scored twice and Krista Kautza knocked in a Kloes rebound for a short-handed goal.
Kendall Nelson and Kacey Iwen traded goals and assists for Tomahawk leaving the score 6-3 after two.
“The quality of our shots I was pleased with,” Losch said. “Defensively, we actually played pretty well. We gave up a lot of shots to the outside. Jo (goalie Johanna Sommers) wasn’t tested a ton.”
The Edge picked things back up in the third, scoring four times and allowing only one. Kloes scored just 19 seconds into the period and again at 9:28. Dani Walters added a power play goal and Sierra Vinger finished the Edge scoring at 12:47.
Losch liked the development he saw in his forecheck.
“We probably had it down in their end 60 percent of the time,” Losch said. “Our defense did a real effective job –– we were real aggressive pinching.”
Nelson added a power play goal for Tomahawk with 49 seconds left to play.
Holly Trembley (four points) and Nikki Kloes (six points) each had hat tricks for Northern Edge.
Tomahawk was whistled for five penalties to Northern Edge’s three. Rhinelander-Antigo took advantage to score two power play goals.
Up next, Northern Edge has its first game in Rhinelander on Dec. 5 vs. Webster at 2 p.m.
Losch said before the Webster game his team needs to work on defensive zone coverage.
“We weren’t tested nearly as much tonight, but that’s our biggest area –– we need to get smoother on the breakout.”
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