Former Spartans are 'back with old gang' on ice

4/8/2008 9:25:24 AM

By Jason Feldman
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

Allie Harwood helped her team to a national tournament as a freshman.

Brittany Erickson's team was an overtime game-winner away from going to a national tournament this year, her freshman season.

For all of the success the former Rochester Mayo girls hockey players experienced this year in college, they had almost as much fun -- in a different way -- during the weekend in Rochester.

The former Spartans standouts led their team, Fans Of Bacon, to the championship of the women's division in the 27th annual Return of the Robin amateur hockey tournament.

Fans Of Bacon defeated Rochester Sign Tech, 7-3, in the title game at Graham Arena on Sunday.

"We're just playing fun hockey again," said Harwood, who like Erickson, was a senior on the 2007 Mayo team that placed sixth at the Class AA state tournament. "Back with the old gang."

Indeed, it was just like old times for all of the former Spartans.

They even wore Mayo's new scrimmage jerseys -- black with a green-and-gold "M" on the chest.

In the first year that the annual Return of the Robin adult amateur hockey tournament has fielded a women's division, the group of former Mayo players proved that a year apart from one another doesn't mean they've lost their on-ice chemistry.

"(In college) you have to learn your team and start all over again," Erickson said. It did take a while to do that. (At Mayo) it was just easy because we had played together for so long."

Nine of the 10 players listed on the Fans Of Bacon roster have strong Mayo connections, either as former players or current or former coaches. Three of the players -- goalie Sinead Murphy and forwards Stevie Fiek and Steph Mathiowetz -- just wrapped up their Mayo careers two months ago with another Section 1AA championship and another trip to the state tournament.

Harwood and Erickson recently wrapped up their first seasons of college hockey -- Harwood at Gustavus Adolphus, Erickson at Wisconsin-River Falls. Harwood was Gustavus' fourth-leading scorer, with 20 points in 28 games. Her team qualified for the Division III national tournament, but suffered a close first-round loss to Wisconsin-Superior.

"That was one of the funnest experiences I've had," Harwood said of playing in a national tournament. "We could have played better in that game, but (Superior) got a couple more bounces.

"I knew we could be a really strong team. A lot of the older girls talked about having high expectations at the start of the year."

Erickson and her UWRF teammates also saw their season come to an end at the hands of UW-Superior, 2-1 in overtime in the NCHA conference tournament championship game.

"That was really, really hard," she said. "There was a lot of emotion in that game. We didn't really come together as a team until that game."

Erickson is already looking forward to the three seasons she has remaining at River Falls.

"We lose seven players this year," she said, "but after that we only lose three until our senior year, so there's a lot to look forward to."

Extra Mayo

Nine of the 10 players on the championship team of the Women's division in the Return of the Robin hockey tournament have strong ties to the Rochester Mayo program:

• 2007 graduates: Brittany Erickson, Allie Harwood, Sara Miller, Nicky Anderson.

• 2008 graduates-to-be: Stevie Fiek, Sinead Murphy, Steph Mathiowetz.

• Coaches: Laura Stypulkowski (06-07 assistant); Amy Fordham (2005 graduate, current assistant).