Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The members of the Chix with Stix women's hockey team will put their season on the line this weekend during the State Tournament in Denver.

The team, 6-12-3 this season, will open the tournament against Breckenridge on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The team is also scheduled to face Aspen at 4:30 p.m.

The local women's team will be looking to turn things around after going 1-3 during its latest road trip.

"The cool thing is that we've beaten both of the teams in our pool this year," local player Diane Dwire said. "We always come into this tournament as one of the lowest seeds, but we still put pressure on ourselves to win."

During the squad's final road trip of the season, the team lost a tough 6-5 game to Breckenridge on March 23.

Cathy Widener, Lee Cox and Heidi Chapman all scored in the game. Dwire added two goals of her own. Liz Schnackenberg had two assists in the game and Gretchen Van De Carr added another. The game was tied at the end of regulation but Breckenridge scored in overtime to steal the win.

"We lost it, but it was still one of the best hockey games that I've ever played in," Dwire said.

The Chix battled back several times to tie the game but faltered in overtime to the Breckenridge team which is one of the big guns in this weekend's Women's Association of Colorado Hockey Tournament.

The next day the Chix suffered the first of two shutouts for the month in a 4-0 loss to Vail. Fort Collins also shut out the Chix in a 6-0 game on March 30.

The team's only win during the stretch came against the Denver Bandits on March 29 in a 5-2 battle.

Steamboat's Schnackenberg and Val Dietrich both scored in the first period of that game. Dietrich and Schnackenberg also had assists.

Schnackenberg added two second period goals and Lee Cox scored in the third period, helping the Chix grab the win.

"I think we picked up a lot of confidence in the game we lost to Breckenridge," Dwire said. "It was so close and we can definitely play with them."