Tradition wins back-to-back & Lake Cowgirls is steady in win

by Pete Waggoner

Edina, MN - Season two of the Celly league has not disappointed as the games have continued to increase in competitiveness and memorable moments are continuing to be made.  League organizers decided to pivot from their play off format of just the top two teams in a final winner-takes-all game to allow for the five teams that are playing to have a shot at the Celly Cup. 


The updated playoff format allows for all teams that are playing at a high level to be given games with increased meaning.  Thus, Thursday evening's games marked the end of the regular season, setting up a playoff round of five games next week from Braemar Arena.  


Ace Hardware is looking to defend its title and entered the last game of the regular season alone in first place and wound up staying there.  The high scoring Ace Hardware team faced off with Tradition Mortgage who was locked in the 4th or 5th seed game win or lose.  Lake Cowgirl is pushing for first place and while they need help, a win can change the narrative for first place and a bye to the semi-final round.  Lake Cowgirl had a stiff test with REMAX Advantage Plus the other team in the 4 vs 5 game next week. 


TRIA has the bye for the evenings games and has locked in at the 3rd seed.  They will play in a semi-final round game against number two seed Lake Cowgirl.  Click here to see the schedule for next week’s games.  


Lake Cowgirl 7 - REMAX Advantage Plus 4

Peyton Hemp (Minnesota)  put on a show with a hat trick and two assists to lift Lake Cowgirl over REMAX Advantage Plus 7-4 in Celly League action. Hemp had help from her sister Josie (Vermont) and their high school aged sister Layla was between the pipes in the first half, filling in for league leading goaltender Sedona Blair (UNH).  


The game featured Grace Zahn’s (Dartmouth) debut and she was near perfect in turning aside 10 of 11 shots in goal.  Lake Cowgirl trailed 4-3 and bounced back with four unanswered to improve their record to 5-1.  Nina Steigauf (Quinnipiac) had a goal and an assist for Lake Cowgirl.  Sadie Lindsay (UST) had a goal and an assist and Chloe Corbin (Lindenwood) scored her first goal of the season while adding an assist for REMAX who fell to 1-4-1 on the season.  


Tradition Mortgage 4 - ACE Hardware 3 (So) 

Tradition Mortgage won its second game in a row, both in shootouts and the shootout loss point for Ace Hardware was enough to secure the top seed and first round bye in the playoffs as they closed out the regular season of the Celly league with a tight checking game from Braemar Arena.  


Emma Conner (Minnesota) had 2 goals and 1 assist with a huge second half, picking up all of her points in the final 30 minutes of the game.  Sydney Leonard (UNH), Ella Boerger (UST), and Cara Sajevic (UST) scored for Ace.  Boerger continued her assault on the leaderboard with an assist and finished the season as the top point producer with 11 points and was tops in assists with 9. 


Tradition’s Emma Hoen (Lindenwood) wired a shot from the left circle as she dropped down from her blueline position to tie the game off a feed from Jane Kuehl (Princeton) with 1:17 to go in regulation.  The shootout win improved Tradition’s record to 2-4-1 on the season and the loss dropped Lake Cowgirl to 5-1-1.