There's no crying in baseball, but there's plenty in women's ice hockey, especially when it's the final tournament for your goalie of eight years.
Joanie Whitcomb is swapping her blocker and pads for sunshine and surf with a move to Hawaii next month. She competed one final time in Utah this past weekend.
Now a veteran goalie, Whitcomb's prowess between the pipes has grown with every passing season and her dedication to the sport pushed the Five Star Kitchen Design (formerly called Sun Valley Fury) to unprecedented success over the past eight years.
"She's the backbone of our team," Five Star Design captain Bege Reynolds said about Whitcomb at last weekend's meet. "She could never be the captain being back in the goal, but she could have been.
"She's such a leader and so dynamic. Joanie has played such a huge role—not only on our team—but in all hockey in the valley. She will be missed by everyone."
Before the boo-hooing started there was plenty of yahooing, with Whitcomb backstopping her team to a fourth-place finish in the eight-team "B" bracket tournament field at Ogden Friday through Sunday.
The tournament featured "A-level" play from women who unleashed slap shots that were harder than a left-hand rush-hour turn on Highway 75. But Whitcomb was equal to the shots.
Five Star rallied to beat Park City (Utah) 3-1 in Friday's opening game. Down 1-0, wing Kipp Mills hit Jody Zarkos on a bang-bang back-door break to make it 1-0. Jini Griffith (Kelli Kerns/Zarkos) and Mills added unanswered goals in the third period for the 3-1 final score.
Sparked by two goals off the stick of Reynolds, the Five Stars froze the Utah Freeze 4-0 Saturday morning. The steady center also had the assist on wing Jeannie Kiel's goal.
Kipp Mills notched her second goal of the tourney. Twyla Bulcher, Dotty Sarchett, Sara Shafer and Kerns served up assists. In a game in which Ketchum was outshot more than a two-to-one margin, the diminutive Whitcomb loomed large with 27 quality saves.
The Wasatch (Utah) Wings handed Ketchum its first loss, breaking open a 1-1 tie with two goals in the final frame to win 3-1. A goal by Griffith (Zarkos/Casey Mills) knotted the score in the early going.
In the consolation game for third place, the Salt Lake Black Diamonds scored twice in the opening minutes and rolled to a 5-1 win over Ketchum in a contest closer than the final score. Reynolds scored unassisted.
Whitcomb finished with 83 saves. Wielding big sticks on the blue line were Nicky Elsbree and Nancy Parsons-Brown. Five Star's players extended their thanks to Chris Edwards, Chris Zarkos, Clayton Elsbree and Josie Sarchett for their support.
Twisters finish up in second
Goalie Linda McMahon had shutouts in the first two games as coach Johnny Ellison's Sun Valley Twisters opened their "C" bracket quest at Ogden last weekend with an unbeaten record in their first three games.
The Twisters beat the Golden Spike Girls 3-0 and Wasatch Wings 5-0, putting them up against the unbeaten and heavily favored Durango (Colo.) Fury in Saturday's semi-final contest. What a game it was, the outcome putting the Twisters into the title game!
Jen Schultz scored a second-period breakaway goal, assisted by Tristan Gralenski. Durango equalized, but Gralenski broke the tie and scored the eventual game winner at 2-1 with four minutes left in the third. She batted the puck into the net with help from linemates Dana Price and Schultz.
Durango got revenge 5-0 over the Twisters in Sunday's championship game, but the Wood River team happily returned with the second-place silver medal honors. Scoring:
Tristan Ellison Gralenski (3 goals/4 assists), Schultz (2/4), Price (2/3), Laura Blash (1/1), Heidi Jorgenson (0/2), game MVP Janet Salvoni (1/0) and Anna Scheinfield (1/0). Goalie McMahon had 84 saves. Other Twisters skaters were Jen Biondi, Lolly Greeninger and game MVP Laurie Sammis.
