The Copper Country Jr. Huskies 19U girls hockey team, sponsored by Harter’s Auto Supply, poses after winning the state championship in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pictured are Mazie McPherson, Ella Schneiderhan, Candace Anderson, Stella Burridge, Jordan Holombo, Abagail Rozman, Nizhoni Jacker, Natalie Miotke, Tessa Meneguzzo, Sophia Blake, Mary Gray, Maira Kallenbach, Sylvia Aho, Baylie Bourdeau, and Vesper Clark-Bonk. The team is coached by Jason Meneguzzo, Doug Bourdeau, Ryan Gray, Matthew Miotke, and Madison Labyak. (Photo courtesy of Action Shots Sports Photography)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — When the final buzzer sounded Sunday evening, the Copper Country Jr. Huskies 19U girls hockey team, sponsored by Harter’s Auto Supply, stormed the ice in celebration of a second straight state title. They defeated Downriver United 12-0 in the championship game to do it.

While the final score of the championship game suggests otherwise, Harter’s coach Jason Meneguzzo said that winning a second straight title was not as easy as it appeared.

“It’s exciting,” said Jason. “To do it two years in a row, and to have a repeat back to back, you know that it’s not a fluke that we won it the first time. The girls had an awesome weekend.

“Winning the state title is always something special, but what makes it the most meaningful is seeing how far this group has come together as a team. We lost a couple girls last year, so we had to come over that hurdle. But, the girls were committed. They really started playing their best hockey at the right time.”

In fact, in their last action before the state tournament, Harter’s took on the Traverse City North Stars 16U and the Traverse City Bay Reps high school team in a tournament and were beaten in both games in Sault Ste. Marie. However, the team learned important lessons in those games.

“We had played over in the Sault in a tournament, and were playing teams that were above our skill level,” Jason said. “But, what that does is it really exposes what we need to work on the most. It was late in the season, so we were kind of like scrambling to try to get everything cleaned up, I guess, for lack of better words.”

When you field a roster with players from across the Upper Peninsula as Harter’s does, practice time becomes a challenge from a travel perspective. With a girls travel hockey team out of Munising this year, Jason mentioned that his team lost a player to that team, along with the four girls who aged out. So, fielding a team proved an early hurdle. The team added a couple of players from Marquette, and settled on a roster of 13 skaters and a goalie.

“We take every girl that wants to play on the team,” he said. “This year, we started out with 14, lost one to injury, so then we were down to 13 skaters, plus a goalie, which actually ended up being pretty perfect. That gave us three full forward lines and two defensive lines, so it worked out well. They ended up pulling together.”

Harter’s featured a roster that included Mazie McPherson, Ella Schneiderhan, Candace Anderson, Stella Burridge, Jordan Holombo, Abagail Rozman, Nizhoni Jacker, Natalie Miotke, Tessa Meneguzzo, Sophia Blake, Mary Gray, Maira Kallenbach, Sylvia Aho, Baylie Bourdeau, and Vesper Clark-Bonk.

Last season at the state tournament in Livonia, 14 out of 15 skaters picked up at least one point over the course of five games. This season, Jason was extremely proud of the fact that all 13 skaters earned at least one point.

“It was a total team contribution,” he said. “All of them contributed. One of the most impressive things about the weekend was, and I mentioned this last year, but we stepped it up. Last year, we only had one kid that didn’t have a point. Out of 13 skaters this year, every single player recorded at least one point in the playoff in these last four games. So, that makes it really special that everyone contributed.”

Harter’s defeated Downriver United to open the tournament Friday after the team battled the elements just to get to Grand Rapids. In fact, one player, who is from Manistique, arrived just 30 minutes before the game. While the girls won, 6-2, Downriver exposed something defensively that Harter’s had to fix on the fly.

“They exposed a weakness of ours and capitalized on it,” Jason said. “It was in our positioning. To their credit, they found something early that gave us trouble. It was nice to see that they found it early and not in the championship, because we were able to correct it, and once we recognized that, Coach Doug (Bourdeau) our assistant coach, made the adjustments and the team corrected it quickly.”

That adjustment helped Harter’s shut down the Livonia Knights on Saturday evening, as McPherson earned a shutout in a 3-0 win.

“The team started out a little slow, but we gradually found our rhythm,” said Jason. “It took us a little bit to get going, but the girls found their game, and played solid hockey. We ended up finishing out with a 3-0 win with a shutout for goaltender Mazie.”

That win secured Harter’s a spot in the championship game, but they still had one more game to play before that, and it was against the best team in the tournament besides themselves, the Detroit Bulldogs, the same team that the girls beat last year for the state title.

Beating them again meant the world to the team.

“They have a deep bench,” Jason said. “They have 19 skaters and two goalies, so, a pretty impressive lineup. A great program they have. Our girls came prepared. That would have been the best team of the weekend. I believe the girls were ready for that one, though. They knew what kind of team they were facing. We played them three times. We beat them twice in the early season and tied them once. The time we tied them, we only had eight skaters, because we had a couple kids out sick, and, I believe, there was a cross country meet or something that weekend. So we were short on skaters.

“But, that one, we came out hard, ended up controlling the game, and won 5-1.”

With that win, and then the win by Downriver over Livonia in the game that followed, the field for the championship game was set. Downriver earned the right to face Harter’s through multiple tiebreakers.

This time, Harter’s was ready. Downriver would not surprise them again.

“We just covered it over, and we were pretty much able to just take care of the issue that we had,” said Jason. “They were throwing girls back behind us, and we weren’t used to that. We were used to more playing traditional hockey, and this was something that we just had to adapt to.

“It was fairly easy to correct. Once you see it, you’re like, ‘Oh, well, what are we doing?’ So, it was easy to correct. We just reiterated it before the game and it was taken care of. It was a non-issue for the championship game.”

Even though Harter’s won the game 12-0, the game had another set of challenges. The scoreboard failed in the first period, with the girls up 2-0. They played the remainder of that period and the entire second period using stopwatches to keep track of time, which got challenging as penalties started to stack up. After the second period, the teams moved to a different ice sheet in the same building to finish the game with a working scoreboard.

“It definitely made for a strange game,” Jason said. “The girls focused, kept focus, and handled it well. I was really concerned, because we had two goals before this scoreboard went down, and then you could lose momentum. So, it was a little nerve wracking for everybody that was there, but they overcame it. Despite the disruptions, we ended up finishing the game out with a 12-0 win.”

Jason praised his younger players for learning over the course of the season that they could play at this level this year.

“Building confidence is one of the biggest hurdles that we’ve had,” he said. “It was a focus on the season. We had new girls that were younger. They played on 14U teams, and they played co-ed, so they really weren’t as confident as some of the more senior girls. Building that confidence was a huge part, helping them believe in their abilities, to trust themselves just to make those millisecond decisions instead of panic passing. Once the girls started believing in themselves, they could really see their game grow.”

Jason said that the team was really grateful for all the support it received this season, both on and off the ice.

“The program is grateful for many people, parents, but it takes a lot to put a hockey team together,” he said. “We’re playing for seven months, so special thanks to our sponsor, Harter’s Auto Supply, and Harter family. Also, the entire coaching staff, Doug Bourdeau, Ryan Gray, Matt Miotke, and Madison Labyak. Then, additional thanks to Amy Blake and the entire CCJHA and IRHA boards for their support in girls hockey.”

Jason also was proud of how well the entire team gelled as a group.

“At the end of the day, this group proved that if you believe in each other, work through their challenges, and play as a team, good things can happen,” he said. These girls earned this championship. I mean, they really did. They played as a team the entire weekend, not one individual better than another. It was a great weekend.”

Harter’s Auto Supply’s Natalie Miotke celebrates a goal with a teammate during the state tournament in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo courtesy of Action Shots Sports Photography)

Harter’s Auto Supply’s Tessa Meneguzzo turns up the ice while looking for a teammate to pass to during the state tournament in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo courtesy of Action Shots Sports Photography)