Mid-Winter Border Battle
Forest Lake beat Central Wisconsin in one semifinal to earn a trip to the championship game. No surprise there. Fergus Falls beat Blaine 5-3 in the other semifinal.
Fergus Falls’ goalie Jadyn McKeever had to have known she was going to see some shots in this game and she proved to be ready. Forest Lake held 14-5 shot advantage in the first period. Jadyn stopped all 14 shots and the game was tied at 0s going into the first intermission. Jadyn continued to get shelled as the second period was all Forest Lake. Shots were 17-1 and Jadyn saved 15 of them. Sophomore D Rachel Golnitz finally put the Rangers on the board at 10:46 of the second and Sydney Schmidt gave Forest Lake a two goal lead by scoring a PP goal with just over 2 minutes to play in the period. Forest Lake did their best to give Fergus Falls opportunities to get back in the game by taking 5 penalties (the 5th one being a coincidental) in the third They could not capitalize and in fact Forest Lake scored a shorty on their third an final goal of the game.
Fergus Falls’ goalie Jadyn McKeever saw 46 shots and made 43 saves. Forest Lake goalie Allie Goehner had the 13 save shutout. Brooke Remington had 1 and 1 in leading the Rangers to the title.
Kaposia Classic- Full Tourney Review
Roseville didn’t figure out how to score goals but they didn’t need to. Maddison Lehto is a frickin’ brick wall. Now the box score shows that Mounds View had 19 shots. And it shows that Roseville only had 1 shot. ONE SHOT ON NET. Roseville won the game 1-0. One shot. One goal. Pure insanity. Now I am not sure if that is accurate but with Maddison Lehto as your goalie you literally have a chance to win a game with only one shot on net. That is crazy if that is an accurate box score.
In the second game Hill Murray faced Lakeville South. It wasn’t much of a game. Hill outshot LVS 49-13 and won 7-1. Although it is worth pointing out that it was 1-1 after the first with LVS goalie Becca Macklin making 14 saves in that period alone. Katie Kaufman had 2 and 2, Allie Franco had 1 and 3, Nina Steigauf had 1 and 2 and Hailey Blinkhorn had 3 assists for the Pioneers.
Elk River vs. Champlin was a very close game. Shots favored the Elks 28-26 and the final score was 3-2 for Elk River. Kelsey King scored a goal to give her a billion on the year.
South St. Paul played Hibbing. I pointed out in the preview that SSP had a 1.62 GAA. A reader named Chad chimed in and pointed out that Hibbing also had a 1.62 GAA. He said “first one to 2 wins”. And lo and behold he nailed it. SSP was the first to two and won 2-1. I offered Chad a job predicting the outcomes of girls high school hockey games. He asked, “Does it pay well?” I said, “Not really.”
Hill beat Roseville 4-0 in the first semifinal. SSP beat Elk River 4-2 in the other to set up the championship game. Hill came out flying in the first period against SSP putting up 15 shots and scoring two goals. The first being a PP goal scored by Alex Belde and the second was scored by freshman Allie Franco. Hill Murray scored two more PP goals in the second before SSP got on the board with a goal by Justine Rambaum. The second period would end with Hill up 4-1. In the third SSP was able to cut the lead to two goals and their comeback efforts came to an end with Hill Murray scoring an empty netter to seal the victory and the championship. Senior D Joslynn Olson led Hill with 3 assists in the game. 3 players added 2 points each. Hill would end the game going 3 for 5 on the PP.
Sota Girls Hockey 