BELOIT — Success comes with a price and for the Rock County Fury girls hockey players it will be a target on their backs from here on out.
“Heading into the playoffs everyone is going to have that little extra motivation to beat us because we’re the (Badger) conference champion and No. 1 seed,” head coach Luke Steurer said.
The Fury (16-8-0) ended the regular season on a rough note, losing to University School of Milwaukee (17-7) on Saturday 5-0.
“We just did not come ready to play,” Steurer said of that loss. “We did not adjust our play much at all. But I think we can take some good things away from that game. For one, we need to show up ready to play against any team. From here on out our mind-set should be that this could be our last game of the season.”
Fortunately, with a bye in the first round and not playing their first postseason game until Feb. 20, the Fury have plenty of time to recover. Rock County will host the winner between the Cap City Cougars or Badger Lightning at 7:45 p.m. at the Janesville Ice Center.
“We’re going to work on some things like our power play and penalty kill,” Steurer said. “We’re not going to give them a lot of time off. They’ll be on the ice.”
The Fury head into the postseason led by two of the top seniors in Wisconsin, forward Emma Kligora from Milton and goaltender Jillian Traver from Beloit Memorial.
Kligora ranks No. 1 in the state in goals (37), No. 12 in assists (20) and third in total points. She ranks No. 2 in program history in points during a regular season with 75 goals and 55 assists for 130 points.
“We were not offensively heavy a year ago and this year I was a little worried about stacking our first line with our top three players (Emma and Ava Kligora of Milton and Macy Murphy of Janesville Craig),” Steurer said. “They have really worked together well, since the beginning of the season. That line has really produced and Emma has exceeded expectations.”
Traver has been the last line of defense for the Fury for two seasons. She finished the current regular season fourth in the state with a .933 save percent overall and four shutouts. She ranked No. 1 in the Badger Conference with her .957 save percent, 11 wins and a goal against average of 1.13. She is second in the state in wins (16) and eighth in goals against average. She has the highest career save percentage in Fury history at .923 and has the third highest career save percentage of all the senior goalie in the state.
“Coming into this season I knew what she could do,” Steurer said. “With her stats last year and how many shots she saved, I had knew coming in what kind of goalie she is. We had high expectations and she’s gone above and beyond that.”
The Fury have helped this season with some better defense around her so she doesn’t have to face as many quality shots.
“This year we have some true defensemen,” Steurer said. “We moved (Janesville Parker’s) Lily Clark to defense as a junior last year and she’s back. She is is basically like having a second goalie. She will put her body in front of the puck. She won our black-and-blue award last year for a reason.
The Fury have also relied on freshmen Ella Swenson and Sophia Young of Parker and junior Maizy Fonseca of Warren, Ill., on defense.
While Rock County’s first line has done plenty of scoring, its second has focused on stopping them.
“Our second line of Anna and Ally Cole (of Craig) and Sophia Ferrera (of Beloit Memorial) has scored a few goals here or there, but what they’ve done a tremendous job doing is keeping other teams from scoring, whether its against the first line or second. By doing that, we’ve gotten some mismatches with our first line against second and third lines.”
The Fury may have their work cut out for them in their opener, particularly if they’re facing Cap City. They’ve split two games, both in overtime. But get past that game and the Fury will also host their second game in Janesville at 7:45 on Feb. 24.
“We’re definitely confident,” Steurer said.
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