Another weekend of career and personal milestones for coaches and players in the western region of D-III Women’s hockey. We also saw a team establish themselves with a key weekend sweep that will play a vital role as we make the late season push now that the last half of play is underway.
Adrian’s Head Coach Shawn Skelly gets #100!
Entering this past weekend, Adrian Head Coach Shawn Skelly had a career record of 98-16-7, he finished the weekend 100-16-7 (.841). Skelly, who had an impressive career at Adrian as a player from 2007-2011, racking up 229 points (102 goals, 127 assists) in 113 games, also playing at various pro levels for six years, eventually returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach for the women’s program in ‘16-’17 and then the men’s team in ‘17-’18. After taking the head coaching job with the women’s program in 2018, he’s had nothing but success. Winning 20+ games in his first four seasons as HC and is well on his way to a fifth consecutive year of 20+ as his Bulldogs sit at 14-1-0 and ranked #5 in the USCHO poll.
Looking back at when I spoke with Coach Skelly before the season started, he was very confident in the group he has this year consisting of many veteran players and leaders that can help get Adrian to the next level after their season ended in disappointing fashion last year. With their 14-1-0 start and some very winnable games (on-paper) ahead, this team could do some special things. Their biggest remaining matchups are NCHA games which happen to be their last two weekends of play, where they visit Aurora for a pair of games (2/10-2/11) and then head to St. Norbert 2/17-2/18). Those games will be crucial to see how the NCHA league standings pan out to determine conference tournament seeding.
Congratulations to Head Coach Shawn Skelly of Adrian on this impressive milestone of 100 career wins with many more to add to the column!
Adrian’s Une Bjelland gets career point #100!
Another Adrian Bulldog personal milestone from this past weekend, this time it’s Senior Une Bjelland. Bjelland, from Stavanger, Norway, who’s played on Team Norway since 2013 (WJC-18 D1, Olympic Games Qualification, & WC-D1A) tallied her 100th career point in the two-game series vs Lawrence where she and her team dominated in all aspects. Adrian won by scores of 14-0 & 9-0, but Bjelland racked up 8 points in game one (5 goals, 3 assists) & 5 points in game two (1 goal, 4 assists) for a total of 13 on the weekend. Currently, she has 104 points after starting her weekend with 91.
Une just didn’t want to give her coach all of the spotlight, so she decided to tally 13 points in one weekend to share the limelight with Coach Skelly, however, her play solidified his two wins, so it all worked out in the end for the two of them.
Adrian returns to play this weekend with a two-game series at home versus Finlandia University (1/20-1/21 at 3:30pm and 12:00pm ET).
St. Norbert makes an NCHA statement
St. Norbert entered the weekend 10-3-2, coming off a series split with #10 UW-Eau Claire. They had #12 Aurora in their crosshairs in a battle between two of the top three NCHA teams. The Green Knights swept the series, winning 2-0 & 3-2 on the road in Aurora. For anyone who overlooked St. Norbert, it’s time to face reality that they could be an NCAA tournament team this year. 3rd year Head Coach A.J. Aitken, coming off the program’s first ever 20-win campaign and NCHA conference championship appearance, is now on pace to set the program record for wins as his team sits at 12-3-2, ranked #15, which I’d argue should be higher considering their body of work compared to some of their counterparts in the rankings, but that’s neither here nor there.
In the two games vs Aurora, the point leaders were Natalie Hogan with 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists), Kelsey Ross with 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist), and Jordan Moore with 2 points (1 goal, 1 assist). Goaltender Brynn Waisman also had another stellar weekend, getting a pair of wins, recording a 27-save shutout and a 32 save victory to improve her overall record to 8-2-2. Norbert now sits atop the NCHA with an 8-0-0 record, with Adrian the only other team perfect in league play, sitting with a record of 6-0-0. These two teams meet in mid-February for the last weekend of regular season play in St. Norbert.
#15 St. Norbert takes the ice next versus Lake Forest College at home this weekend 1/20-1/21 at 7pm and 3pm CT.
Other Notable Results
#1 Gustavus swept Saint Benedict, winning 5-2 & 5-1.
#2 UW-River Falls swept UW-Stevens Point, winning 4-2 & 3-1, and also defeated St. Scholastica 5-1 earlier in the week on Tuesday.
#10 UW-Eau Claire swept UW-Superior, winning 3-1 & 3-0.
Trine swept Finlandia, winning 4-1 both games.
Hamline defeated St. Catherine’s 4-3 and tied 3-3 (St. Kates won the shootout 2-0).
