Leah Jensen is the all-time scoring leader in the East Grand Forks Senior High girls hockey program with more than 100 career goals.
But there's more to the Green Wave attack than Jensen.
"Depth-wise, this is my best offensive team," third-year Senior High coach Jim Scanlan said. "We've had good players. We've had a dynamic line. But this year we're getting more scoring from our second and third lines."
The 5-2-1 Wave average 4.9 goals a game. They scored three or more goals in every game until being shut out 6-0 on Thursday by top-ranked Warroad and its UND-bound goaltender, Shelby Amsley-Benzie.
Jensen again leads the Wave offense, as she has 16 goals and 21 points. Jensen hasn't had to carry the offense, however.
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Chelsey Grassel is second on the team with seven goals (one more than she scored all last season) and 11 points. Other top scorers include Maggie Tweten (three goals, six assists), Emily Swenson (3-4) and Jaclyn Scanlan (2-4).
"Leah is our leader," Jim Scanlan said. "She's a finisher -- she can beat teams from outside with her good shot, or by attacking the net. She just has a knack for scoring.
"Teams do whatever they can to stop Leah. That's understandable. But all three of our lines have been scoring, and we're getting scoring from our defensemen, too."
The biggest output of the season came Tuesday against Roseau, an 8-5 victory in which Jensen didn't score a goal.
"We'd never beaten them," Scanlan said. "I felt we could be competitive with them. But to put up eight goals against them was a bit of a surprise."
Eagles have 1-2 punch
East Grand Forks Sacred Heart has had an impressive one-two offensive punch on its girls basketball team.
Tia Klein paces the team with an 18.2-point scoring average. The guard has scored 14 or more points in every game for the Eagles, with a high of 23. Samantha McDonald averages 17.5 points; like Klein, she's been a double-figure scorer in every game, with a high of 32.
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While Klein is the team's point guard and McDonald the starting post player, they have a bit of a reversal in roles.
"Tia's thing is penetration," Sacred Heart coach JoAnn Remer said. "She's very quick and a good ballhandler. She gets to the basket. And she's good on the offensive boards. She's gotten a lot of points there.
"Samantha is our post player, but she's not a back-to-the-basket player. She can hit the outside shots. She's made some 3s for us."
Despite the offense of Klein and McDonald, the Eagles won just twice in their first six games. "Other than those two, we lack experience, and we're playing some young girls," Remer said.
Low numbers in GF
Grand Forks girls basketball teams are down in numbers this season.
Central has 26 players in its program, one more than Red River. The freshmen classes, in particular, have low numbers. Neither Central nor Red River is fielding a freshman team. By contrast, there have been some years when the schools had two freshman teams.
The low numbers are unusual, but not unique. "I can remember one other year where we had a small freshman class and we had to fill out our freshman team with some eighth-graders," Red River coach Kent Ripplinger said.
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"It's a concern. But I think its just one of those years where we don't have good numbers in a class. And there were some sophomores and juniors who we expected to come out who didn't."
Grand Forks athletic director Todd Olson said the low freshman numbers aren't a surprise.
"This group has had low participation numbers in basketball all the way through," Olson said. "I think its just one of those years."
But, Olson said, "Statewide, the trend is that there are fewer girls playing basketball."
Olson said he anticipates the schools will have freshman teams again next year.
