December 7
As posted on FB: TWO ALEXANDRIA 70-YEAR OLDS SET ENDURANCE RECORD!! Bradley Arland and I sat on a wooden plank at the RCC last night from 4:30 to 9:30! That was 8 periods of hockey as the girl/boy doubleheader both went into OT! And they were almost identical games: We won both games 3 – 2; in both games we were behind 2 – 0; in both games we outshot the opposition in the vicinity of 45 – 15. The girls beat East Grand Forks and the boys beat River Lakes. The girls made a signature statement – EGF was ranked No. 2 in the state and had tied No. 1 Warroad 3 – 3, yet we totally dominated every minute of the game, even without star McKenna Ellingson. In an OMG, the Card girls basketballers were also home last night and beat Rocori 59 – 11 (oy!) to go to 3 – 0.
To begin: The fierceness of their warm-up shots sent us scurrying to our seats in fear!
[Little did we realize at the time that the captain introductions for the girls’ game was the beginning of a 5-hour evening at the arena.]
[The lineup . . . ]
[The pilots of the ship: Coach Ben Doherty and Head Coach Molly Arola.]
[Big game – they’re No. 2!]
[All for one . . . ]
[And one for all!]
[Missed the face-off because I forgot to turn on the camera. Junior Erin O’Kane (26) and Senior Kristin Trosvig (15) lead the charge after the puck, with Kristin’s 8th-grade sister, Kaci (25), keeping an eye on things . . . ]
[In the Green Wave zone with sophomore defense, Mayson Toft (14), who as I recall got off the first shot of the game here . . . ]
[Senior Calley Richardson (19) annoying the goalie . . . ]
[But the puck scoots behind . . . ]
[A shot from the left point by senior defense, Talia Olson (27), with junior defense, Olivia Kopp (13) . . . ]
[Cards are cycling in the offensive zone . . . ]
[Tools of the trade]
[Kristin swoops in from the right . . . ]
[Kaci and Erin are set up . . . ]
[Kristin’s in front . . . ]
[I have to give kudos to the Green Wave goalie – she withstood our onslaughts all game.]
[And the puck’s sneaking out the back door again . . . ]
[There it is!]
[As sometimes happens, the team that totally controlled the whole period is behind by one.]
[Keep the pressure on!]
[Eventually there’ll be a breakthrough.]
[Missed the 2nd period face-off because the lens cap was still on. But junior Alexis Heckert (20) has the puck . . . ]
[With Calley and our bench on her right . . . ]
[Somebody’s chasing the puck behind the net . . . ]
[One of dozens of scrums in front of the EGF goal . . . ]
[Looks like the Trosvig sisters were involved . . . ]
[Now freshman Anna Doherty (7) and Calley join the fray . . . ]
[It’s a shot – and I think I got the goal? Is that the puck on the far left side, halfway up in the goal?]
[Kaci got her first varsity goal on an assist from big sister. We finally opened the door – as EGF, despite being wildly outshot, had a 2 – 0 lead until now.]
[Shortly thereafter, freshman Marki Oberg (10) tied the score on assists from sophomore Hadlee Hansen (18) and senior Josie Minnerath (6).]
[Further swarming, but . . . ]
[No more goals in the period.]
[2 – 2 after 2.]
[3rd period face-off, camera on, lens cap off . . . ]
[The line that scored the 2nd goal . . . ]
[WE WIN!!]
[In overtime!]
[Marki’s 2nd goal of the game, assisted by sophomore Meg Shercliffe (5), and winning goalie sophomore Amanda Bittmann (33).]
[A statement win against a highly ranked opponent . . . ]
[We subsequently moved up to No. 3 in the state class A rankings.]
[Then the boys came out for the River Lakes Stars . . . ]
[We were ranked No. 8 in the state class A rankings prior to this game. That’s junior defense Evan Lattimer (12) and sophomore defense Derek Pesta (10) . . . ]
[Face-off in the stars zone with senior Ryker Treat (4) and junior Zach Wosepka (20) identifiable . . . ]
[Sophomore defense Andrew Revering (2) chases the Stars No. 2 . . . ]
[Lattimer from the point?]
[Sophomore Shane Birkeland (25) joins the party around the goal . . . ]
[With junior forward Jack Westlund (10) . . . ]
[Freshman Jakob Stender (27) joins the assault . . . ]
[Just like the preceding girls’ game.]
[Sophomore Caleb Strong (3) joins Westlund on a rush . . . ]
[Must be Caleb’s night for a series . . . ]
[Whoa! A gooooaaaaalllll! Jakob from Caleb and senior defense Jack Powell (21).]
[And Jakob’s in on goal again . . . ]
[Again, just like the girls’ game after 2.]
[Revering on a power play from Westund and Powell tied the game at 2 . . . ]
[Westlund was aggressive all night . . . ]
[Going into OT.]
[Birkeland’s in with senior Derek Dropik (8) . . . ]
[They were screening and following the puck in flight . . . ]
[Of sophomore defense Matthew Carlsen’s (26) shot from the blue line that made it through all the traffic and into the goal for the game winner!]
[Cards ended with a 50 – 17 shot-on-goal advantage. Junior Bailey Rosch (31) was in goal for the Cards.]
[The Stars goalie was terrific throughout but distraught over the result. He needn’t have been – the Cards were simply the better team. Big game next up against No. 2-ranked St. Cloud Cathedral. ]
We get nose jobs all the time in the NHL, and we don’t even have to go to the hospital. ~ Brad Park
Up Next: Holiday stuff?
