Photo by Bill Croney, the Northfield News Northfield's Lindsey Hunt,The Lady Ice Marauders Captain, moves the puck across the ice against Harwood in the U-32 tournament last Saturday night in Montpelier. Lindsey had a big hand in the Lady Ice Marauders 5-3 win over the HIghlanders . She scored the tying goal and then swooped end to end to add one more late in the game to help the Northfield Girls pick up their third win of the young season. The Northfield High Girl’s hockey team’s only action this week was a pair of games in the annual U-32 Dr. Butsch tournament at the Central Vermont Civic Center, in Montpelier, last weekend. On Friday night the Lady Ice Marauders fell 4-1 to powerful U-32 in the opening round but came from behind to defeat Harwood 5-3 in the consolation game on Saturday night. The Northfield Girl's record stands at 3-1 for the year.

This tournament was played with an experimental format. Two 25 minute halves instead of three 15 minute periods. All the high school regular tournaments will be played this way this year and coach Chris Amell is not a big fan of the format. “This was tough on the girls. You only get one 15 minute break and we only have two lines. Those breaks during the regular games are important.” The coach said. The two-half format also effects coaching decisions. “ Almost all the decisions you make have to be on the fly. Without the breaks you get less time to make adjustments. There is also an extra five minutes of regulation,” Coach Amell stated.

In Friday night’s game the Lady Ice Marauders went up against a powerful U-32 Raider team. “The U-32 game was a 4- 1 final but it was a much closer game than that,” said Marauder coach Chris Amell. “ I thought we played very well against one of the top teams in our division. It was a 2-1 game with seven minutes to go and we had two breakaways in one minute but the puck didn’t go in. They added two goals in the final minutes to make it look a lot worse than it was,” he added.

Steph Morvan was brilliant in the Marauder net as she racked up 37 saves and Jenna Dorman scored the only Northfield goal, Assisted by freshman Devon Lindner. For Devon the assist was her first high school point. “Devon has been only playing hockey for a few weeks and she has been playing very well,” said coach Amell.

Things went better for the Lady Ice Marauders on Saturday night against Harwood. But it didn’t look that way at the start of the Harwood game.

Both the Marauders and Highlanders were showing the effects of Friday night’s lengthy games and the opening minutes were played at a slow pace. Harwood jumped out to a 2-0 lead by midway through the first half and the Marauders needed a lift. Kristi Luce provided just that lift.

She lit the lamp off a pass from Devon Lindner (Devin’s second high school point in as many nights) to pull the Lady Ice Marauders to within one with about five minutes to go in the half. Northfield picked up the pace but Harwood scored in spite of the Marauder pressure and it was 3-1 Highlanders with three minutes to play in the Half.

But the Marauders Girls didn’t give up. With just :20 left in the half freshman Elana Van Arnam took a pass from Olivia Drown and converted it into the second Northfield score of the Night. That score pulled the marauders to 3-2 after the first half and gave them momentum as they headed into the break. “ That goal was a key score for us. I lifted us up and gave us a spark going into the second half,” said coach Amell.

That spark showed up quickly in the second half. Lindsey Hunt scored the first of her two goals of the night just :27 into the second half and things were all even at three. “Lindsey has been playing great for us all season and she didn’t have any goals until tonight (Saturday).

She is our captain and she has been playing like one,” coach Amell said.

Northfield’s Olivia Drown skated into familiar territory at the ten minute mark when she scored what proved to be the game winner, making it 4- 3,Marauders. For Olivia it was her third game winning goal in the Lady Ice marauders four games and the second time this year she got a game winner against the Highlanders.

Lindsey Hunt capped the Northfield scoring with her second goal of the night a few minutes later. Goalie Renee Guy actually got the assist as she slid the puck to Lindsey who then went end to end and popped the puck into the Highlander net. The final score: Northfield 5 Harwood 3.

The Lady Ice Marauders moved their record to 3-1 and will play at Rutland before opening at home on Saturday against U-32 in a 2 p.m. game.