Pines girls co-op opens new year with road win

The Northland Pines girls hockey team (3-7) is 1-0 in 2025 after beating Viroqua 2-1 on the road last Friday night.
The win comes after the Eagles stayed warm throughout the holiday break, even though they dropped three contests then.
The Eagles were down 1-0 Jan. 3 when Ruby Casper set up Larken Paff with the tying goal at 8:34 of the second period.
The defensive battle continued into the third period until the Eagles’ Emalee Detienne scored what proved to be the game-winning goal, assisted by Mia Tulowitzky, with less than three minutes left in the game.
“We have been in enough games with this young team where the other team scores first,” noted Pines coach Jeff Stebbeds. “I am proud they worked so hard against another senior and junior-stacked team. We are building something special here and the girls can see that.”
In previous contests, on December 20, the Pines girls lost a 4-0 game at home to Black River Falls. The team was 54-5, but freshman goalie Lucy Nowak stopped 50 of those shots for the Eagles.
The Eagles then dropped an 8-2 decision to the Badger Lightning in Baraboo on December 27.
Olivia Peterson scored for Pines, assisted by Bella Nowak, while Lilly Beitler scored with help from Peterson and Ruby Kasper.
“I’m almost thinking about taking the holidays off for games next year. Then they can have a week to get healthy.”
A day later, Pines was back on the road at Stoughton where they dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Icebergs, who scored the game’s only goal at 8:41 of the first period. Pines fired 21 shots on target, with none being able to sneak behind the Icebergs’ Anika Mueller.
The Eagles were back in action to play the Central Wisconsin Storm Tuesday at Marathon County Park in Wausau.