In The Spotlight: WCHA Player Feature
Jan. 29, 2004
by John Gilbert, for wcha.com
Kobi Kawamoto pounces on a loose rebound near the St. Cloud State goal, and in an instant she whirls behind the net and zips a quick breakout pass to a winger moving up the boards. The winger starts to skate out of the zone, and relays a pass to an open teammate speeding across center-ice. Strange, but that open teammate also wears No. 14 - Kawamoto's number. Stranger yet, it IS Kawamoto.
Good defensemen are always a prime recruiting target of college hockey coaches - men's and women's. And finding good defensemen who can jump up into the offensive flow are a precious commodity. And then there is Kobi Kawamoto. The 5-foot-8 senior from Surrey, British Columbia, not only knows when to jump up into the flow, she has the instincts and the speed to pass up the flow and lead the way.
"I play defense, but they let me roam," said Kawamoto, smiling as she spoke her understatement.
The Huskies had the high point of their season when they won three straight WCHA games, beating Ohio State and sweeping Bemidji State, and that streak came to a harsh conclusion when St. Cloud State was whipped 8-3 and 9-3 at Minnesota-Duluth last weekend. But the Huskies didn't go down without a battle, and Kawamoto helped lead the battle.
In the second game, Kawamoto got loose for two breakaways, one of them shorthanded, only to be thwarted by UMD goaltender Anna-Kaisa Piiroinen. She finally broke through when each team was skating shorthanded, when she broke up ice, fed sophomore Ashley Stewart for a breakaway, then raced up behind her. Piiroinen blocked Stewart's shot, but Kawamoto scored on the rebound.
Each year, more and more skilled players come into the Women's-WCHA, and different names find ways to score goals. But Kawamoto does a lot more than that. After the high profile league standouts such as Jenny Potter and Caroline Ouellette at UMD, and Krissy Wendell and the currently injured Natalie Darwitz at Minnesota, Kawamoto might be the next best.
"Some players can put up numbers, but Kobi can be so explosive," said Huskies coach Jason Lesteberg. "I've seen her make a D-to-D pass in our end, then be in the next zone for a pass on the play that she started."
Lesteberg, in his second season of trying to finish the long building program at St. Cloud State, is aware that the Huskies still have a way to go to become a consistent contender, and also that it is an ongoing race to gain consistency before seniors like Kawamoto and Roxy Stang - the players who have been the fabric of St. Cloud success - finish their eligibility.
Stang, a senior from Princeton, Minn., who centers Carrie Holldorf and Ashley Stewart on St. Cloud's top line, set individual school records with five assists and six points in a 7-3 victory over Bemidji State the previous week, and she added two goals, one short-handed goal and the other the clinching marker, in a 3-1 victory. Stang's three goals and six assists meant she was involved with nine of the 10 goals the Huskies scored against Bemidji State, and earned offensive player of the week honors.
Stang came back to score one goal and set up another to lift St. Cloud to a 3-3 tie in the second period of the opener at UMD, but the Bulldogs roared back for an 8-3 victory. The next night, UMD led 3-1 in the second period when Kawamoto scored, then Stang tied the game 3-3 with a shorthanded goal, boosting her season totals to 10-12-22. But again, the Huskies couldn't match UMD's firepower, as Jenny Potter scored four of her five goals in the game to trigger a burst of six unanswered goals for a 9-3 UMD victory.
Success comes by degrees for the Huskies, however, who have only four seniors altogether, with goaltender Ellen Brinkman and defenseman Leanne Perrin joining Kawamoto and Stang.
The team struggled but competed hard in 4-1, 5-3 losses at Minnesota to open the WCHA season, and they struggled more in being swept by Ohio State and Wisconsin. After losing and tying against Minnesota State-Mankato, the Huskies went to Bemidji State and lost 5-3, 5-2. That made St. Cloud 0-9-1 in league play, and a 2-1 loss at Ohio State made the Huskies 0-10-1.
Lesteberg, who had been going mostly with Brinkman, his proven senior, in goal, put freshman Lauri St. Jacques in for the rematch, and she beat the Buckeyes 2-1 for St. Cloud's first league triumph. Back home, Lesteberg went with St. Jacques again, and when Stang & Co. beat Bemidji State 5-3, he went with St. Jacques again, and the Huskies won 5-2.
"That was tough on Ellen, but she understood," said Lesteberg. "She wants to play, but she understands that I had to go with the hot goalie."
St. Jacques didn't cool off at UMD, despite the 8-3 score. While being outshot 55-17, St. Jacques had 47 saves, 20 of them in the third period. Brinkman got her turn in the second game, but again UMD pulled away, outshooting the Huskies 42-30, meaning Brinkman had 33 saves.
But several end-to-end dashes by Kawamoto, who now has scored 5-11-16, were among the highlights of the weekend. Lesteberg plays six defensemen, but Kawamoto seems to be on the ice all the time. "Maybe as much as 30 minutes," estimated assistant coach Jeff Giesen.
"I had somebody tell me that they clocked me on the ice for 42 minutes one time," said Kawamoto. "But I don't get tired. The more I play, the better I seem to be."
A sprained knee hampered her early this season, then she was slashed on the wrist and had to wear a brace for protection, although it inhibited her shooting. She's at full strength now, and Lesteberg hopes the Huskies might reach the WCHA Final Five, which would give Canadian National team scouts a chance to see Kawamoto at full speed.
"I'd love to play for the national team," said Kawamoto. "I was told that I' m one of 20 candidates for the Patty Kazmaier Award, and that's really a thrill."
Kawamoto, who has the strength and aggressiveness to play tough defense as well, has a prominent backer in UMD coach Shannon Miller, former Canadian Women's Olympic coach.
"I'm really a fan of Shannon Miller," said Kawamoto. "She was probably one of biggest influences for me making the junior national team, back when she was the national coach."
Miller said she always was impressed with Kawamoto, and is even more impressed now. She did not, however, recruit her to come to UMD. Typically, Miller pulled no punches when asked about that. "I only got to see her play once that year, and she didn't have a good game, so I didn't offer her a scholarship," Miller said. "But ever since then, I've told them Kobi definitely should be on the U-22 national team."
But first, she's got another couple of months to dazzle WCHA foes with those
end-to-end rushes.
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