16U Take on South Side Rivals

The Team Illinois 16U team took to the ice on October 2, 2004 to face off against the Chill 16U girls hockey team from Orland Park.  Team Illinois was anxious to avenge last season's two losses to the Chill.  The Chill team won the overall series 2 games to 1. Both teams were excited to see the progress made by the skaters over the off season. 

Brittany Lemke opened the game in the net for Team Illinois.  The opening minutes showed the speed and overall skills by both of the teams.  Brittany was tested early as the Chill fired several shots at the net from close range. 

Halfway through the period, Team Illinois started to pick up the pace of the game and began to apply relentless pressure on the Chill goalie.  Jenna Dancewicz opened the scoring by banging one home from short range after receiving assists from her line mates Erika Greenen and Kim Kowalczyk. Shortly thereafter, Courtney Bean picked up a puck at the point and fired a low slap shot by the screened Chill goalie.  Courtney assisted on the third goal of the period when she once again peppered the goalie who deflected the shot to the front of the net and Jillian Kirchner went top shelf to pick up the third and final goal of the period. 

The defense of Katie Daniels, Diana Karouzos, Erin May, Brianna Wolf and Courtney Bean stepped up in the second period to limit the Chill to only a handful of long range shots on goal.  Speedy Katie Cachey demonstrated excellent skating ability as she scored on a breakaway in the opening minutes of the second period.  Erika Greenen concluded the scoring when she received a short pass from Brianna Wolf and fired a wrist shot into the net. The second period ended with Team Illinois leading by the score of 5 to 0. 

Team Illinois continued to dominate the play in the third period. CC Wyshnytzky, Katie Osikowicz, Melissa Kravich and Katie Iraci showed great tenacity by picking up the loose pucks in the corners and creating numerous breakouts from the defensive zone.  Jillian Kirchner grabbed a loose puck at center ice, skated around a defenseman and slid the puck under the pads of the Chill goalie to start the third period.  Katie Iraci's continued hard work payed off when she received a cross ice pass from Katie Daniels and scored the final goal to push the lead to 7 to 0.  The Chill dented the scoreboard with three minutes to play as Jamie Henneman scored on a hard wrist shot from the high slot. 

Coaches Margaret Dumiak and Tony Cachey  stated that they were pleased overall with the team's performance.  They did indicate that they were concerned with the player's conditioning as they skated only once in the prior week.  This did appear to affect the skaters in the later stages of the third period.  The numerous ice times in October will help to prepare the team for the aggressive game schedule coming up over the next six weeks.