19U's on Track for the Season

November brought several changes to the U19's. On the negative side TI lost Elaine McKenna for the season with a shoulder injury and Kellye Stefanski has been on the mend. We wish Elaine a quick and full recovery. Likewise we wish Kellye a quick recovery and hope to have her skating with the team as soon as possible. On the positive side TI moved in to the new Hoffman Estates practice facility and Sherah Baumgarten joined the 19U's to fill out the goalie position caused by the loss of Elaine. 

The U19's finished out October with an impressive 2-1 victory over the PowerAde from Milwaukee. After losing to them the previous week in Milwaukee, TI hosted PowerAde at Seven Bridges and turned the tables. Leading 2-0, the lone PowerAde goal came with less than a minute to play in the 3rd period after they pulled their goalie. In the end TI prevailed. 

The first weekend of November saw the 19U's travel to Indiana to play the Culver Academy 19U's in a two game set. Running into a much improved Culver team, TI took two losses. In the first game the lone TI goal came in the second period from Nicole Sassorossi on an assist from Anna Baumgarten. In the second game the TI goal again came in the second period. This time it came on an unassisted goal from Kelsey Hopkins. 

During the weekend of November 13th the 19U's traveled to Madison Wisconsin for a Showcase weekend against Shattuck, Minnesota and Madison. In between the Shattuck and Minnesota games the Klockars' hosted the team at their house. In the first game against Shattuck, TI lost 8-2. The TI goals came from Ingrid Klockars assisted by Anna. The second came on an unassisted goal from Lauren Wiedmeier. The second game against the Minnesota Thoroughbreds saw TI drop a tough 2-1 loss. TI scored at the 12:16 point in the first period to tie the score. TI's goal came from Ingrid assisted by Anna and Kelsey. The game remained tied until the 1:02 point in the third period when a goal by the Thoroughbreds pulled them ahead for the victory. In the final game of the weekend TI lost 3-0 to the Madison Capitols. Despite the loss TI had 23 shots compared to Madison's 30. 

The weekend of November 20th the 19U's traveled to Washington, DC. The 19U's played two games against Colorado, and single games against Washington Pride and an exhibition against Gilmour Academy. After traveling, TI played a 9:30pm game against the Colorado Selects. In a defensive battle Colorado prevailed with a 1-0 victory. Other than a Colorado goal at the 7:21 mark of the first period the remainder of the game was a defensive battle. TI took on the Gilmour Academy team Saturday morning and lost 6-1. Anna scored for TI at the 1:33 mark of the third period on an assist from Shannon Breen. 

A number the girls took advantage of their time in DC and traveled into our nation's capital for a few hours of site seeing. A few girls had to deal with some car problems, but in the end everyone arrived back in time for the night cap thanks to the Coach Zaban shuttle bus service. 

That night TI took on the Washington Pride. In another close game TI could not overcome a two goal deficit and ended up losing 2-0. In the fourth and final game of the weekend TI took on Colorado in a rematch of their Friday night game. And like the Friday game, this game saw another defensive battle. In the end TI and Colorado skated to a 0-0 tie. Ryann McCarthy was an important factor in keeping TI in all three league games. She posted a shutout, only allowing three goals in the other two games and stopped 88 shots on goal. 

After three back-to-back out of town weekends the 19U's got a Thanksgiving break. They resumed play in an exhibition game against Team Glacier. In the first period Ingrid scored at the 6:13 mark on an assist from Amanda Auger and Rachel Brobst. Going into the third period TI trailed 3-1, however TI fought back with a score at 14:40 by Anna, assisted by Rachel. Then with 41 seconds left in the game, TI pulled their goalie and scored on a goal by Kelsey with the assist coming from Anna. 

The week of December 10th TI will host Culver at Seven Bridges.