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Girls' Hockey

Cougar girls claim resounding win on Senior Night

Ema Rehder, of the Aberdeen Cougars girls varsity, center, shoots the puck as Jolie Carrillo, of the Huron All Stars, right, looks on during Friday night’s game at the Odde Ice Center. Photo by John Davis taken 1/20/2023

Despite owning a superior depth advantage over their foe on Friday night, the Aberdeen Cougars girls made sure there would be no letdown on Senior Night at the Odde Ice Center.

The Cougars rifled one shot after another at the goal and rolled to a 14-1 hockey victory over the Huron All-Stars.

“It’s a tough game, because you feel bad for them because they don’t have enough girls,” said Cougars coach Rob Weinmeister of the fact that Huron has just seven members on its squad. “A 51-minute game and those girls are probably skating 45 minutes of it.”

Yet, when the Cougars hit the ice on Friday, they were not about to get caught taking the All-Stars for granted. In fact, it was just the opposite.

“The mindset is always like we’re playing tougher teams like Omaha and Sioux Falls. They’re the same,” said Cougars senior Ema Rehder. “We have to go out and surprise them off the faceoff and score off the faceoff. Even with seven skaters like they had tonight, I look at them as the best team in the state and try to just pound them.”

While Aberdeen ended up racking up more than a dozen goals, the Cougars did get off to a bit of a slow start. The game was tied 1-1 in the first period before the host squad opened a 3-1 lead by the end of the period.

“I thought right away we didn’t do a good job of doing puck support. We were just slapping at the puck and chasing it and having to battle for it,” Weinmeister said. “We kind of talked about that between periods and we came out and started moving the puck a little better, then you create more opportunities.”

Those opportunities along with goals starting come fast and furious as the Cougars scored seven times in the second period and then added four more in the third.

Aberdeen received goals from nine different girls on the way to the final margin of difference.

“That’s the way that I like to play. I want to have lots of girls who score,” Weinmeister said. “I was looking at it today too, yeah, we don’t have a lot of girls up there in the high points and stuff, but that’s because we spread it around to everybody, which I just think makes us a better and stronger team.”

Aiden Raap, of the Aberdeen Cougars girls varsity, left, goes after the puck with Devin Hunter, of the Huron All Stars, right, during Friday night’s game at the Odde Ice Center. Behind Raap is Huron’s Shelby Timm. Photo by John Davis taken 1/20/2023

Aiden Raap scored three times to lead the scoring attack. Madalynn Witte, Alyssa Roehrich and Morgan Jones each scored twice. Other goals went to Madeline Sandvig, Allison Woehl, Kailyn Poppen, Rylee Hepper and Lauren Scheel.

Rehder finished with a team-leading four assists.

Rehder is one of six seniors on the squad. She said the goal the rest of the season is to have fun and go out with a bang.

“Have fun, especially the seniors, it’s our last year and we have to play like it’s our last year,” Rehder said. “We want to win a state tournament and we want to start a legacy again.”

Weinmeister said the current seniors have definitely made their mark on the program.

“They’ve been around for a long time,” Weinmeister said. “You expect them to set the standard for the practices and everything, and they’ve done a good job with that.”

The Cougars play at Watertown today and at Mitchell on Sunday.

Huron All-Stars 1 0 0 – 1

Aberdeen Cougars 3 7 4 – 14

First Period: 1, AC, Madeline Sandvig (Allison Woehl, Reece Ermer), 7:52; 2, HAS, Azalea Rashaad, 5:25; 3, AC, Woehl (Rylee Hepper), 5:16; 4, AC, Madalynn Witte (Lauren Scheel, Ema Rehder), 3:19.

Second Period: 5, AC, Kailyn Poppen, 16:05; 6, AC, Hepper (Rehder, Aiden Raap), 14:24; 7, AC, Morgan Jones (Poppen), 9:50; 8, AC, Scheel (Hepper, Woehl), 8:20; 9, AC, Witte, 6:48; 10, AC, Raap (Ermer, Rehder), 6:23; 11, AC, Jones (Alyssa Roehrich, Sandvig), :43.

Third Period: 12, AC, Raap (Raniesa Mattke), 7:46; 13, AC, Roehrich (Poppen, Jones), 5:29; 14, AC, Raap (Rehder), 4:29; 15, AC, Roehrich, 3:13.

Shots on Goal: Huron All-Stars 11; Aberdeen Cougars 70.

Goalies: Huron, Avelia Colon (56 saves); Aberdeen Cougars, Chloe Vikander (10 saves).

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