Farmiliar Foes At State Meet Again

The best rivalry involving a Glasgow team the past few years might be with Missoula, not Malta.

The Missoula Lady Bruins and U19 Glasgow Ice Dawgs faced-off in the MAHA State Championship game on Sunday for the fourth time in as many years. The Dawgs' bested the Bruins the first two times before Missoula broke through last season for the state championship.

The Lady Bruins were able to even the score this year with a 5-1 victory to make it two championships apiece in the past four seasons.

Missoula is "loaded," according to Glasgow Head Coach JR Rasmusan.

"Their four or five seniors made the difference," he added.

One of those seniors was Julia Michels, who recorded a hat trick with a single tally in each of the three periods. She put Missoula up early with a score four minutes into the game and while Glasgow put nine shots on goal in the first, they couldn't find the back of the net. Missoula scored again early in the second before Elizabeth Holom pulled Glasgow within one on a goal assisted by Debra Griebel and Alex Simensen.

However, Michels struck again with a minute remaining in the period to put the Lady Bruins up 3-1 heading into the final period.

Glasgow couldn't scratch back into it. Sawyer Heacock put Missoula up 4-1 early in the third before Michels scored her third of the game to cap the scoring.

Autumn Gault was able to keep Glasgow in the game with 39 saves on 44 shots on goal, but the Dawgs weren't able to muster enough scoring.

"We definitely ran out of gas," said Rasmusan. "We played a whale of a hockey game. We were just outmanned."

The Dawgs actually played a whale of a tournament considering their overall season.

Glasgow struggled with injuries and inconsistency all year long and lost games they probably would not have in the past. In contrast, Missoula was the prohibitive favorite. The Lady Bruins were expected to be in the championship game. To some, Glasgow was not.

But Dawgs' head coach JR Rasmusan had faith his team would step it up come tournament time – he was right.

The Dawgs began the round-robin tournament on Friday with an important contest against Bozeman, who was thought to be the second-best team in the state.

The Ice Dawgs scored three quick goals in the first to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Neither Glasgow or Bozeman was able to score again, giving the Dawgs' the big opening-game win.

Just three hours later, Glasgow overwhelmed Whitefish with three goals in the second on the way to a 4-0 win.

Carley Wesely scored a pair of goals and Debra Griebel and Sadie Sukut tallied one each. Simensen had an assist on the night. Gault stopped the only seven shots Whitefish was able to put on net.

The Dawgs then met Missoula during the round-robin portion of the tournament and fell 3-0. Gault had 41 saves in the game.

The Dawgs continued to struggle with being able to score after that but a "really pretty goal," that found the top corner from Carly Wesely gave Glasgow a 1-0 win over Flathead, sealing the Dawgs' spot in the championship. Sukut assisted on Wesely's goal. Gault had 12 saves.

Glasgow had one final round-robin contest, against Miles City, before the championship. Miles City came out with the 1-0 win as Glasgow continued their scoring slump. Gault did have 23 saves in the process, though.

Gault finished with a .935 save percentage and a pair of shutouts during the tournament to earn All-Tournament honors. Joining Gault on the team was Wesely, who scored three goals and a pair of assists during the weekend.

Whitefish finished third over Flathead with a 3-2 win in the third-place game.

The tournament does not end the season for the Dawgs; they now travel to Devil's Lake, N.D. on Friday for the NDAHA State Tournament. The game schedule was not known at time of publication.