Zoie Campbell
The team of Anchorage girls came up just short of becoming rink royalty Monday at the USA Hockey National Championships in Plymouth, Minn.
Anchorage fell 2-0 to powerhouse Shattuck-St. Mary’s of Minnesota in the girls high school championship game in the Minneapolis suburb.
The game was even closer than the score indicates – Shattuck pocketed an empty-net goal in the waning seconds to go with a first-period short-handed strike.
Anchorage goaltender Zoie Campbell, who split her high school season between the Dimond/West girls team that won the Anchorage Hockey Association’s State Invitational and Dimond’s boys team, stopped 21 of 22 shots to cap a terrific tournament performance. Campbell went 4-1-0 with a goals-against average of 0.61, a save percentage of .967 and one shutout.
In two seasons at nationals, Campbell has gone 6-2-0, 0.98 and .959.
Anchorage went 5-1-0 in the tournament and outscored opponents 23-4.
From @AnchorageHockey
The Anchorage girls high school team came up just short of winning the National title falling 2-0 (one was an empty netter) to Shattuck-St. Mary’s in the final. pic.twitter.com/Odv4o9AIei
— Girls/Womens Hockey Alaska (@907hockey) March 28, 2023
Shattuck went 6-0-0, didn’t surrender a goal and peppered opponents with 34 goals.
Shattuck’s championship crew included defenseman Lake Bethard of Anchorage, who led all tournament blueliners in scoring with 2-4—6 totals.
Shattuck used Payton Holloway’s short-handed goal to seize a lead in the first period. She led all tournament scorers with 7-9—16 totals in six games.
Alexis Kindred
Alexis Kindred and Renee Doyle led Anchorage’s tournament attack – Kindred earned 6-2—8 totals and Doyle earned 4-4—8 totals. Tana Carlson went 4-2—6 for Anchorage and Charlotte Kotlarchuk went 3-3—6.
Bethard wasn’t the only Anchorage skater to earn a title Monday.
Ryan Embley of Anchorage helped the Shattuck-St. Mary’s boys earn the prep championship with an 8-0 win over New Tier Green (Ill.).
Embley, who furnished an assist in the championship game, produced 2-2—4 totals in five tournament games, with both his strikes coming on the power play.
USA Hockey’s Tier I and Tier II national championships open across the country later this week with eight teams from Alaska in various fields from 14-U divisions to 19-U divisions.
Made for this moment… @ssm_hockey are the 2023 High School Girls #USAHNational champions! 🏆
@ChipotleTweets | #TrainEatRepeat pic.twitter.com/Wru39ILG3R— USA Hockey (@usahockey) March 28, 2023