2008 CCWHA Championship Series Review

Congratulations to the Lindenwood University Lions on winning the 2008 CCWHA league championship! Lindenwood joined the CCWHA at the beginning of the 2007-2008 season and along with the addition of two other teams has done an excellent job making our leauge more competitive!

Individual scores for the games are available here.

Lindenwood (1st place) began the weekend on Friday night with a win over Grand Valley State 10-2. Mandy Dion and Nathalie Larsen each scored two goals. Saturday morning, the Lions took on Western Michigan and came out with a victory of 9-2. Their win was greatly attributed to Kat Hannah who scored four goals in this game. In the league semi-finals, Lindenwood faced off against Western again for a rematch. At the end of the first period, the score was 1-0. By the third period however, the game had taken a dramatic turn and the game ended with a 11-1 victory. This win advanced them to the league championship game on Sunday morning where they beat the University of Michigan by a score of 4-0. Krystal Martin scored two goals with Kristina Leng and Ashley Boye picking up the other goals for the win.

Nathalie Larson was awarded tournament MVP and Hanna Hansson was named to first team all tournament team for defense. Congratulations to the Lindenwood Lions!!

Michigan (2nd place) ended the weekend in 2nd place! Friday night, the Wolverines played Western Michigan for the 3rd time in less than a week. The previous two games resulted in a tie and a win for the Wolverines. Michigan finished the game with a 5-2 win. Emily Nelson scored a hat trick. Saturday morning, Michigan beat Northern Michigan 7-2 to advance to the semi-finals. Michigan then took on Michigan State on Saturday night. These two teams met two weeks ago resulting in two MSU wins. Tonight, however would be a different story. With 2:36 left in the period, Emily Nelson scored for the Wolverines on a powerplay. Michigan was ready to head into the lockerroom with a 1-0 lead after the second, but the Spartans weren't ready to give up yet. They put one in the net with 0.6 seconds left on the clock. After a five minute overtime, a shootout was in sight. After 5 skaters for both teams, no goals had been scored. In the next 5 shooters, Amy Cauzillo, Kate Zemenick and Katie Pawlik scored to win the game for the Wolverines! Maggie Wagner stopped 8 out of 9 shots by the Spartans during the shootout. Michigan went on to lose to Lindenwood Sunday morning by a score of 4-0.

Amy Cauzillo and Emily Nelson were named to first-team all tournament and Katie Pawlik to the second team. Congratulations!

Michigan State -- Friday night, the Michigan State Spartans took on the Northern Michigan Wildcats for their first game. Michigan State won the game 6-1. Saturday morning, Michigan State played Grand Valley State winning 5-1 to send the Spartans on to the league semi-finals on Saturday night against the Michigan Wolverines. At the end of the 1st period, Michigan was up 1-0 but with 0.6 seconds left in the 2nd period, the Spartans tied it up with a goal from Nikki Betz. The third period remained scoreless as well as the five minute sudden death overtime. None of the first five skates for either team scored. Sarah Parker was finally able to put it past Maggie Wagner for a goal, but Michigan had already put three in. It was a hard fought game by both teams. Goalie Tiffany Blaine stopped 15 shots throughout the night.

Western Michigan faced off against the University of Michigan for their first game on Friday night. Western scored first just 32 seconds into the game on a power play. The Mustangs were unable to hold on however, and lost 5-2 with a late empty netter goal by the Wolverines. Saturday morning, Western took on the Lindenwood Lions. They were able to hold off the lions 1-1 until the middle of the second period. The game resulted in a 9-2 Lindenwood victory. Western Michigan advanced to the semi-finals to play Lindenwood for the second time that day. Western wasn't able to come up with a victory and lost 11-1. The Mustangs played hard all weekend and will be traveling to Chicago for nationals in two weeks.

Northern Michigan came very close to advancing to the semi-finals this weekend, but lost when penalty minutes were compared to that of Western Michigan. Northern played their first game against Michigan State on Friday night, but came out with a loss of 6-1. Saturday morning, the Wildcats were ready to take on the Michigan Wolverines. They fought hard and were able to put two goals past goalie Katie Caskey, but ultimately lost the game 7-2. Both Western and Northern lost two games and had the same goal differential, but ultimately penalty minutes held Northern back from advancing to the semi-finals.

Ohio State played Grand Valley in the first game of the tournament on Friday afternoon. Earlier in the season, OSU had won against GVSU twice but in this game, the underdog game through. It was a hard fought and close game for both teams but GVSU came out on top. This game being a "play-in" game between the two teams, Ohio State headed home for the weekend.

The Grand Valley State Lady Lakers had an excellent showing this weekend! They upset the Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday afternoon 4-3 to send them on to round robin play in the weekend. This was the Lady Lakers first ever win and was the perfect time for it! The Lakers went on to play Lindenwood later that evening. They put two goals past the Lion goaltender but ultimately lost the game 11-2. Saturday morning, Grand Valley played Michigan State. They needed to have less than a 2 goal differential to head to the semi-finals and just barely missed their goal. The game ended a 5-1 MSU win. Congratulations to all of the Lady Lakers on their first apperance in the CCWHA league tournament!