When there is a scheduling conflict between a girls’ hockey game and a girls’ basketball game, I’ll generally opt for what I think will be the more competitive game. Since Kohler’s cagers have been laying waste to their conference competition, I opted for hockey on Tuesday night. The game was too competitive. The Cardinals lost to a team we had beaten 4 – 1 at their place earlier in the season. River Lakes had a losing record and was toward the bottom in the conference. When we lost to Sartell-Sauk Rapids last week, we likely lost any chance for the conference title. River Lakes is a class AA team that we won’t play in sections. Disinterest? Maybe. But there’s only four games left in the regular season, including three tough road games . . .
[The JV has been playing well, so here’s a shout out to them. I arrived by my lonesome (the Super was under the weather . . . and a lot of blankets), and not expecting other Super Fan support decided to watch the JV game from behind the goal. I learned early on it was only going to be a two period game because the Stars did not have enough players (the JV and varsity are combined). Anyway, here’s sophomore forward Meghan Moore (23).]
[April Jost (5), junior forward]
[Well, refs have families too!]
[April is nicely positioned.]
[Trihanna Olson (14), senior forward]
[It’s a home run!]
[Jade Bollman (9), junior forward, will soon figure in things.]
[Since it’s a lefty, gotta be Kaia Illies (13), sophomore forward.]
[It’s a race!]
[Josie Minnerath (6), sophomore forward]
[Kaia]
[Trihanna]
[GOOOAAAALLLLLL! This is Jade’s, after a scrum in front of the net. I couldn’t tell who got it – the parents around me, with parents’ eyes, all said, “Jade!” (The formal next day report said it was Meghan?)]
[Here comes Calley Richardson (7), sophomore defense, on a break away . . . ]
[She shoots . . . ]
[And GOOOAAAALLLL!! The game winner . . . fitting since she was stopped on a point blank shot just a few minutes before this.]
[A nice solid win, had control of the game throughout.]
[Pre-game warm-up video, so get out the popcorn and Gatorade. About 2/3’s of the way through you’ll hear me mumble, “Oh, April,” as she appeared to be nicked by a slapshot by McKenzie Revering during tip drills. Well, I wouldn’t want to be nicked by a Rev slapshot!]
[We were flat in the first period again? Here McKenna Ellingson (24) is at the back door.]
[Still waiting . . . ]
[As bodies crash all around her.]
[And then Mari Wosepka scored for us to tie the game at one. Funny, McKenna was in the camera coverage the whole time, but I never saw Mari?]
[Here’s the Kristin Trosvig (15), Sam Klimek (37), Hanah Hansen (11) line making a push.]
[But where . . . ]
[Is the puck?]
[The goalie with the old hidden puck trick.]
[The Stars goalie played well – I don’t remember us having too many chances for rebounds.]
[With the JV playing so well, they are getting shots at varsity time. Here Josie (6) and Calley (7), sophomores previously noted above, are on the ice with Allison O’Kane (36), also a sophomore.]
[Looks like Rev and Kristin . . . ]
[And then shortly after the Stars took a 2 – 1 lead, Rev answered back within seconds. We thought the Cards were finally ready to take off!]
[But when the Stars got the next two goals, I believe both off turnovers in our own end, we could tell a chance for a comeback was gone. The team was active throughout the 3rd period, but really didn’t threaten.]
[The shots on goal are deceiving; I thought the Stars flat out outplayed us.]
In other news, the girl roundballers won at Willmar on Saturday in a battle of the undefeated, in conference, Cardinals. Our Cardinals won by 14, our smallest margin of victory in the conference this year, and then had a big home win over Apollo Tuesday night. We are now 9 – 0 in conference and 11 – 3 overall (as is the JV), and are currently the No. 1 section seed. The boys b’ball and hockey teams are also on a bit of roll.
Half the game [hockey] is mental; the other half is being mental. ~ Jim McKenny
Up next: More sports?
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