Talented. Dedicated. Focused.

There’s one word, though, that quite accurately describes both Sadie and Ava Lindsay — Competitive.

For athletes, it’s common to be naturally competitive, to have that desire to find something to beat anyone at. Ping Pong, a footrace, arm wrestling, even checkers. For Sadie and Ava, both forwards on the No. 2-ranked Gophers’ women’s hockey team, they not only have that competitive itch, but have been able to fulfill that with one another nearly their whole lives in the sport they love and grew up playing together.

“I think growing up, it was always Ava and I competing,” the elder sister Sadie said. “It’s kind of how you both learned how to play. It’s been really cool to see that competition transform now into becoming teammates now and playing for the same school.”

Ava Lindsay, pictured here during a game on Dec. 13, 2022, finished her high school career with Minnetonka. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Sadie, now a junior forward at Minnesota, said that both she and her sister learned to skate, play and love the game from their father, J., who also played college hockey, skating at Denver in the early 1990s.

That love of hockey trickled down to both Sadie and Ava and gave them a chance to showcase their competitive nature, although it is all in good fun on the ice.

“From a young age, we’d always be out on a backyard pond playing together and competing against each other, doing 1-on-1s,” Ava, the younger of the two and a freshman on the Gophers, said. “Now, even today sometimes at practice we’ll be up against each other, and it will be so fun going against each other and battling, getting a little feisty out there for sure, but I think just having someone … we’re so close in age that we’re really able to push each other and make each other better that way.”

As one can imagine, this is just the latest instance of playing on the same team together for the duo. Despite being at different levels the past two seasons with Ava still in high school and Sadie playing for the Gophers, they managed to win three Class 1A state championships together at Breck back-to-back-to-back from 2018 to 2020.

Sadie Lindsay (middle) and Ava Lindsay (right) celebrate a goal in a state tournament game against Mound Westonka on Feb. 22, 2019 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Tim Kolehmainen)

Sadie recalled the last state tournament in 2020 as her favorite memory from high school. It definitely makes sense, as both her and Ava had double-digit points in the six games they played in the playoffs that year. Now, after Ava spent two years at Minnetonka to finish out her high school career, the two are together again with the Gophers, the team they dreamed of playing for someday when they were younger.

Aside from just being best friends off the ice, Sadie helped ease Ava’s transition into the college ranks this season. That transition has been a good one, considering Ava has provided some immediate impact this season and is being put into many different situations early on in her career.

“[Ava’s] playing in all situations right now as a freshman which is a pretty big deal,” head coach Brad Frost said. “She’s on our power play, she’s killing penalties and playing a regular shift and that’s hard as a freshman, but, she’s handled it really well.”

When talking about Sadie’s time with the Gophers, Frost said that she’s really coming into her own now this season. Her first two years with the Gophers, Sadie battled injury and played in limited games. Her sister Ava has seen how extensive her recovery process was over the past year to get back this season and admires her tenacity.

“I’m just really proud of her,” Ava said. “Just seeing how focused and disciplined she’s been in making a comeback and being able to play.”

On top of just being able to play, Sadie scored her first collegiate goal on Dec. 2 against Bemidji State, a culmination of the hard work she’s put in to get healthy again and playing regular shifts. As Frost put it, in addition to her excellent edge work and vision, she’s someone who can continue to produce for this team the rest of the way.

As for the rest of the season, the Gophers have plenty to look forward to as one of the top teams in the country with title hopes not just in the WCHA but to also the whole country. This long-term pursuit is another thing, as Sadie said, that athletes can get caught up in with the ongoing grind of a season.

Sadie Lindsay (No. 8) and Ava Lindsay on the ice for a state tournament game against Fergus Falls on Feb. 20, 2019 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Tim Kolehmainen)

“It’s easy to get stuck in the loop of like ‘ok, we got this, let’s go get more,’” Sadie said. “So, there’s definitely been times this season where I’ve just stopped and been like, ‘looking back, 8-year-old me would have been freaking out right now that I would be able to go practice with Ava,’ or just do the daily things that sometimes I take for granted now.”

For now, on top of the trek to the top of the collegiate hockey mountain, the Lindsay sisters are enjoying the little things. Taking in the time at the rink together, the time hanging out with each other, just to make the most of the fact that they’re back playing hockey together again.

“I just know that she always is my number one fan, and I’m hers,” Ava said. “So it’s super special to have that, someone I can go to if I’m feeling down or not confident or having a bad shift, she can fire me back up.”

The post Competitive Lindsays appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But last week’s action involving Minnesota’s six Division I college hockey teams resulted in some impressive goaltending performances that made headlines in the Big Ten Conference, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, the Central Collegiate Hockey Assocation, the women’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association for women, and even the NHL.

The Minnesota Gophers stayed at the top of national men’s ratings, despite splitting two games at North Dakota, with the goaltending of Justen Close. He was responsible for the Gophers’ 4-0 victory in game one, and he couldn’t be faulted when he made 32 saves when the Fighting Hawks came back to beat Minnesota 2-1 in the rematch at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks.

Close’s first-game victory gave him back-to-back shutouts. But the Hawks got 21 saves from Ludvig Persson, their goaltender of the hour, in game two. Minnesota’s loss didn’t cause it to drop out of the No. 1 national ranking because both Boston University and Michigan, ranked No. 2 and No. 3, also lost over the weekend. The only movement among the top five was North Dakota, which appropriately moved up from fifth to fourth and served notice to their NCHC rivals that they are, indeed, equipped for contention.

Frost gets 2-year extension; WCHA packs top-10 rankings
The Gopher women, also ranking high at No. 4 in the WCHA, gave coach Brad Frost a two-year contract extension because he simply forms a contending team year after year. They stand No. 4 after running up a 5-0 record in the early going, including a WCHA midweek match with ever-improving St. Cloud State. The Gophers lost a lot of offensive firepower from last season, causing Frost to proclaim that it will take a more defensive posture to win this year, and beating the Huskies was a clear example.

Frost’s goaltender was Skylar Vetter, who was trying for the fourth-straight Gophers shutout. Avery Farrell spoiled the shutout big with a goal with 5.2 seconds left in the third period. Minnesota had gained the advantage when Ava Lindsay scored midway through the second period, and Taylor Stewart, a fifth-year transfer from University of Minnesota Duluth, scored a short-handed goal into an empty net with 47 seconds left. Fifth-year goaltender Jojo Chobak — another transfer from UMD — was pulled for a 6-on-3 skater edge. The Gophers won 2-1.

The Gopher women have a big challenge this weekend, with a trip to Ohio State (5-1), which is ranked No. 2 in the WCHA-dominated top 10. Wisconsin, Ohio State, Colgate and Minnesota make up the top-four ranked teams, followed by unbeaten Quinnipiac and Yale. UMD (4-2) is ranked No. 7 with St. Cloud State (7-2) rising to No. 10. 

UMD swept Minnesota State Mankato in WCHA play by 3-1 and 4-1 margins. Mary Kate O’Brien, Reece Hunt and Hanna Baskin scored for the Bulldogs in game one. In the second game, Gabby Krause scored a pair of goals to go with goals from O’Brien and Jenna Lawry. Bulldogs freshman goaltender Eve Gascon made 21 saves in the second game, and she was named WCHA Rookie of the Week for her stinginess. 

An interesting part of this coming weekend’s UMD trip to Bemidji State is that it will be a homecoming of sorts for Hunt. She transferred from Bemidji State to UMD for her fifth year, seeking a master’s degree in business with UMD’s curriculum.

Bemidji State’s Mattias Scholl watches his blocked UMD shot trickle past him. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Cohasset natives shine in net at college, NHL levels
Minnesota-Duluth’s men may have good reason to help the good folks of Cohasset, Minn., a tiny mining town on the Western tip of the Iron Range, build a statue to goaltenders. Hunter Shepard, a Cohasset native, is a former Grand Rapids High School standout who guided the Thunderhawks to the Class 2A state tournament before playing junior hockey on his way to UMD. He was the MVP as the Bulldogs won back-to-back NCAA championships. Shepard recorded 15 shutouts in his days at UMD.

While he continued to do his hometown of Cohasset proud by winning the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup trophy for Washington’s AHL franchise, he was called up to start his first NHL game for the Washington Capitals vs. New Jersey on Oct. 25. That was the same day that current UMD goaltender Zach Stejskal was named NCHC Co-Goaltender of the Week for recording his first collegiate shutout in last Friday’s 4-0 victory over Bemidji State before also surviving a wild, power-play-filled shootout to beat the Beavers 5-4 in overtime Saturday in Bemidji.

“I know I came close a lot of times,” Stejskal said, of getting a shutout victory. “I remember one game we were tied 0-0 against St. Cloud, and they beat us 1-0 in overtime. When we’d win and I’d give up a goal late, I’d always say that shutouts didn’t matter, winning was what was important. But now that I finally got a shutout, I’ve got to admit, it’s pretty neat.”

Both nights, Stejskal had to outduel Bemidji State’s Matthias Scholl, who was victimized by a three-goal first period for the Bulldogs, all on power-play tallies from Matthew Perkins, Luke Bast and Aaron Pionk. The next night was not a pleasant one for either Stejskal or Scholl.

“I thought their goalie (Scholl) played great,” said UMD coach Scott Sandelin. “We looked really confident on our power play in the first game, but there were some unnecessary penalties that we will have to tighten up.”

After a miraculous recovery from cancer, UMD senior Zach Stejskal recorded his first career shutout against Bemidji State to keep the Bulldogs unbeaten at 3-0-2. (MHM Photo / John Gilbert)

Stejskal’s story has a double impact, because he, too, is from Cohasset, Minn., and was a state tournament star at Grand Rapids before playing at UMD. After one impressive season, however, Stejskal was stunned by the news in the fall of his sophomore season that he had testicular cancer and would miss the entire season during treatment. He made it through treatment, got a clean bill of health, made it back last season and has become the No. 1 netminder as a senior for the Bulldogs.

Somebody asked Sandelin what he thought Shepard would be going through in his first NHL start at Washington, and the coach said: “Knowing Shep, he’s probably nervous, excited, and probably won’t show it.”

Unlike the 6-foot Shepard, Stejskal is 6-foot-5, towering over the crossbar, the crease and just about everybody on both teams. Maybe they’ll need twin statues up in Cohasset.

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