Finlandia forward Samantha Eldridge skates up the ice during a game earlier this season at the Houghton County Arena in Hancock. (Photo courtesy of Finlandia University)

ADRIAN — Just one week removed from surrendering 18 goals in a weekend to Wisconsin-Superior that led to a lot of soul searching in their locker room, the Finlandia Lions women’s hockey team took a huge step forward during a series at home against Trine. The Thunder did leave Hancock with a pair of wins, but the Lions made them earn both.

For coach Mike Kuruc, the progress could not come at a better time.

“I think that we’ve had some missing pieces all year long, and it’s hard not to get discouraged when you’re losing games so bad,” he said. “You’re losing an 11-0 hockey game, and a lot of it comes down to new coach, new system, all that type of stuff.”

Some of the blame, in Kuruc’s opinion for the Lions’ struggles, has been his own expectation levels.

“Part of it is on me,” he said. “Maybe I came in a little too ambitious with some of these ideas, but I think the girls are really starting now, in the dog days of the season, to see where my positivity, my energy comes from, why I’m like this all the time, my knowledge for the game and the things that I’m trying to bring. The more times that we bring that and you bring it against a really hard-working hockey team in Trine,”

On Friday, the Lions struck first as freshman Tessa Deal scored her first career goal to give the Lions a short-lived lead.

“The goal that Tessa scored on Friday, her first goal of her college career, she actually scored on me in practice earlier in the week,” said Kuruc. “I hopped in the net. She’s got a very deceptive release. So, when she shoots the puck, she looks like she’s gonna push it low glove. The kid went the same way, (and) popped her right over her shoulder.

“That was awesome. She was jacked up. She actually had another one later on in the game that hit the post, same exact shot, missed by about an inch.”

On Saturday, junior forward Lauren Benoit, who recently returned to the lineup, scored the Lions’ first power play goal of the season. Kuruc said that he has simplified things on the power play, and that seemed to spark the success the Lions had on the weekend while on the advantage.

On the back end, the Lions got sticks in the path of shots this weekend, but unfortunately that led to shots getting redirected into their own net. So, while his players were making better plays, they created new issues by doing so. However, that is all part of the learning process.

“The way I look at it, we can’t be tipping pucks into our own net,” he said. “Those are the types of things with a program in this state right now that are going to murder us.

“I talked about it this week in the defensive zone, like if you’re not gonna get all of it and you’re going to sit back, you can’t do both. If you’re going to sit back, you better get in front of all of the shots. You better not be afraid of it. If you’re not confident you’re going to get all of it, you have to get right out on top of the puck, because it’s going to change a lot of things.”

Scouting the Bulldogs

This weekend, the Lions travel to face No. 4 Adrian. The Bulldogs are 14-1 on the season, and 6-0 in NCHA play. They enter this weekend fresh off a sweep of Lawrence at home, where they won 14-0 and 6-0 last weekend.

Fifth-year forward Jessica VanRuden leads the team in goals (15) and points (26) in 15 games this season.

Senior Une Bjelland leads the team in assists (12) and has 24 points in 15 games. She had a banner night last Friday, scoring five goals and eight points in the win over Lawrence.

Senior Sophie Goldberg has been very good in goal for the Bulldogs. She has started 11 games this season, going 10-1 in those games. She sports a 0.73 goals against average and a .965 save percentage.

Game times

Friday’s game is set to start at 7 p.m. Saturday’s contest is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.