Depending on the vantage point, it was a thrilling way to win or a devastating way to lose.
Skating to the right in front of the Dickinson High net in the third period Saturday at the West River Ice Center, Williston forward Bethanie Pippin took an Elizabeth Goebel pass from the blue line and worked the puck around her back and away from Midgets defenders. The shot had just enough on it to scoot through the legs of goaltender Baylee Kram with 6 minutes, 42 seconds remaining, giving the Coyotes a 2-1 lead.
“I didn’t stay square to the puck, but I should have,” said Kram, a freshman. “I stayed square to where the people were. I just didn’t get there.”
It ended up being the winning goal, dropping the Midgets to 1-7 and pushing the Coyotes to 4-4 this season.
“Baylee played a hell of a game. She keeps getting better and better,” Dickinson head coach Al Takle said. “It was a good play by that girl to tip the puck in front. I’m sure they’re practicing that stuff. We do. That stuff happens, and we should have been clearing her out of there.”
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After battling through a scoreless first period, Dickinson senior Kira Zastoupil broke the ice with an unassisted goal 1:56 into the second. It was her fifth goal of the season.
“We came out and were flying. It’s amazing to me that coming out of a Christmas break that we were able to do that,” Takle said. “We had them watching us skate around them for a while, but as the game went on, we got a little tired and forgot how to get the puck out of our zone. Baylee kept us in it for a long time.”
Kram had 31 saves in the game.
It was Pippin who supplied the equalizer with less than four minutes remaining in the second period.
“I thought we came out a little slow-footed, but I wasn’t real happy with our effort in the first period,” Coyotes head coach Mat Ekblad said. “We went in and talked about doing the little things right and we really picked it up.”
After Pippin’s go-ahead goal, the Midgets struggled to regain control of the puck, even after pulling Kram from the goal in favor of an extra skater.
“We got tired after a while. We don’t have very many players, so it’s hard,” Zastoupil said. “We knew we had an extra player out there, but everybody’s terrified to leave the net open, so we’re all pretending we’re goalies for a minute instead of playing our actual position.”
Takle and Zastoupil were both pleased with the team’s effort overall, and Zastoupil said the team will settle down once it gets some normalcy back in its schedule.
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“It’s our first game after the long break,” she said. “I think once we get back into the every day - after school going to practice every single day - we’ll be ready for our next games more than we were today.”
WHS011–2
DHS010–1
FIRST PERIOD: No scoring.
SECOND PERIOD: 1, DHS, Kira Zastoupil, 1:56. 2, WHS, Bethanie Pippin (Lynze Swanson), 13:11.
THIRD PERIOD: 1, WHS, Pippin (Elizabeth Goebel), 6:42.
SAVES: DHS, Baylee Kram 10-13-8 - 31. WHS, Neige DeLaunay 12-7-4 - 23.
