January 18
It just keeps happening over and over and over again. Next year’s seniors weren’t even born yet when I began “covering” Cardinal sports . . .
[Congratulations to the 2018 seniors, bringing joy and excitement to older people who deign to wander out of their homes in the middle of winter . . . ]
[Sure, they all look innocent enough . . . ]
[But if you tangle with them over a puck in the corner, you’ll find they’re tougher than Boolean algebra . . . ]
[The meeting of the captains. We’re hosting River Lakes, who beat us earlier in the year. Revenge always provides good incentive . . . ]
[The seniors are introduced with the parents, beginning with Allison . . . ]
[Talia . . . ]
[Taylor . . . ]
[Calley . . . ]
[Kristin . . . ]
[Josie . . . ]
[2018 SENIORS]
[And they are introduced first . . . ]
[Followed by their teammates . . . ]
[Roger Riley, as always, sings the Anthem. We have quite a record when he does . . . ]
[He is joined by scoreboard operator, Donnacha O’Connor, better known as the superintendent of the Alexandria Golf Club . . . ]
[LET’S PLAY HOCKEY!!!]
[5 of the 6 seniors started; we couldn’t do 6 for 6 because we don’t have a senior goalie.]
[Blueliners Mayson Toft (14) and Talia (27) . . . ]
[McKenna Ellingson (24) on the doorstep, a scene that was repeated often this game. McKenna achieved a natural hat trick against Detroit Lakes earlier in the week – amazingly in less than 2 minutes she scored even strength, on a power play, and shorthanded . . . ]
[But not this time . . . ]
[Kaci Trosvig (25) gives it a shot. We had good legs from the beginning . . . ]
[Where’d it go?]
[Alexis Heckert (20) this time . . . ]
[McKenna, again . . . ]
[And again . . . ]
[And the shot . . . ]
[Save by the goalie . . . ]
[The boys in the VIP zone keeping an eye on things . . . ]
[She was followed on this rush by Marki Oberg (10) . . . ]
[Appears to be a face-off, but where’s the Cards’ center?]
[Alexis finally appears on the downhill side . . . ]
[If there’s one area where the Cards have improved mightily, it’s on face-offs. Here Alexis shows the proper technique for the best leverage – nose on the ice!]
[Coaches appear satisfied so far . . . ]
[The Trosvig sisters are in together with Allison . . . ]
[McKenna and Anna Doherty (7) move into the offensive zone . . . ]
[And then, we scored! Kristin from Josie, tying the game at 1 (the Stars had scored a couple minutes earlier on a shot from the blue line that found a corner of the net).]
[And after you finally score following continuous pressure, you generally score again. So we did – 20 seconds later, Calley from Alexis and Kaci.]
[And then we had the idea that we now had the game in hand.]
[The puck’s in the photo, but no Cards?]
[Oh, here comes Calley . . . ]
[Kristin in with Calley . . . ]
[Calley tries to jam it in as both Trovigs ready for a rebound . . . ]
[Maybe not . . . ]
[Looking good after 2 . . . ]
[It was senior night, so the event was festooned with the band and – cheerleaders . . . ]
[Meanwhile, back at the hockey game, the puck exits stage right . . . ]
[Kristin pirouettes to chase after it . . . ]
[McKenna, again and again and again . . . ]
[And I could see this one coming, so I just did a continuous photo run . . . ]
[The poor goalie must be seeing No. 24 in her sleep . . . ]
[McKenna found the 5-hole for our final goal . . . ]
[Though we tried for more – here Kaci and Calley . . . ]
[Taylor has an upclose and personal meeting with a Star . . . ]
[Well played, Cards. We are on an 8-game winning streak and are ranked No. 4 in state class A. I looked back at the game where we lost to the Stars in OT – we outshot them in that game 44 – 24. It happens. In this game, the shot differential was minimized by the 5 penalties we took v. none for them. In a season in which the schedule has been tougher than Boolean algebra (oh, did I use that metaphor already?), our last three regular season games are off the charts – at Grand Rapids, at St. Cloud, and hosting Breck. Uffda!]
Kill them with success and bury them with a smile. ~ Usain Bolt
Up Next: Yup, Panama
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