February 3

Keeping it local!!  The Alexandria – Breck girls hockey game in the morning was acknowledged by the Minnesota Girls Hockey Hub as the state game of the week – between the 3rd (us) and 2nd (them) ranked teams in class A.  And there were snow machine races all day at the fair grounds.  And Alex’s-own Josie Nelson would be providing the entertainment all afternoon at the winery (see the two videos).  Oh, and we finally got snow!

[At the Runestone Community Center for the hockey game . . . ]

[One doesn’t like mixed crowd events?]

[Pre-game introductions, with Card captains Calley Richardson (19) and Kristin Trosvig (15) . . . ]

[Lest you didn’t know, Breck is a private school in the Cities.  We’ve had a long competitive history with them as both schools always have good teams.  But we “tease” them as well, as their whole team had matching parkas with the Breck logo.  Impressive . . . ]

[Our Cards were on an impressive 10-game winning streak and had only allowed one goal total over the last three games . . . ]

[Hailee Bailey (35), 8th-grade goalie (uffda, I generally tell folks that in 8th grade I was still trying to put my underwear on over the top of my head?) . . . ]

[Allison O’Kane (36), senior defense . . . ]

[Tayor Breitkreutz (34), senior defense – it’s nice to have that senior experience on the back line . . . ]

[Anna Doherty (7), freshman forward . . . ]

[Taylor Ellingson (24), junior forward . . . ]

[Alexis Heckert (20), junior forward . . . ]

[And the kick-off!]

[The beginning of pushing and shoving . . . ]

[Meg Shercliffe (5), sophomore forward, taking on three Mustangs all by her lonesome . . . ]

[Oh-oh, they’re bookending her . . . ]

[Josie Minnerath (6), senior forward, comes to the rescue . . . ]

[Face-off in the Mustang zone.  We must be shorthanded because Allison is up on forward line.  Mayson Toft (14), sophomore, soloing on defense . . . ]

[Kristin gets off a shot.  I thought she had another terrific two-way game . . . ]

[The senior captains circling together . . . ]

[Anna and McKenna after it in the right corner . . . ]

[Marki Oberg (10), freshman forward, joins McKenna on the attack . . . ]

[Olivia Kopp (13), junior defense, on right point . . . ]

[The two freshman forwards apply pressure . . . ]

[Ohhhhhh, there’s the puck!  We had a lot of these moments in the game . . . ]

[At first glance one might think, OMG, Breck has a 5-on-oh break!  But we were celebrating Marki’s goal, a nice wrister from the left side. Unfortunately, it would be our only goal of the game . . . ]

[Well played between evenly matched teams . . . ]

[2nd period, a shout out to Taylor and Allison on defense . . . ]

[Oh-oh, here come the Mustangs . . . ]

[There was a slight pause in the action for no apparent reason.  So Kristin engaged in conversation with the ref.  So, how are the wife and kids?]

[And, Do you have a favorite movie for the Oscar?]

[OK, here we go again . . . ]

[We have Meg and Marki and an unidentified Card on a blue line face-off.  As always, Coach Arola keeps mixing the lines.  Behind the bench in civvies are Kaci Trosvig and Erin O’Kane – hoping to have them back for the tournament . . . ]

[McKenna and Anna in on goal . . . ]

[Here Talia Olson (27), senior defense, joins Marki and Calley in an offensive zone face-off . . . ]

[Allison is on defense with Olivia, mixing the 5 defensemen rotation . . . ]

[Looks like a Cardinal is tackled as she neared the end zone . . . ]

[I believe there was a penalty call on that one . . . ]

[Josie and Talia . . . ]

[Chase it down . . . ]

[Drat, stifled again . . . ]

[We thought their 3rd goal was of dubious authentification.  Nevertheless, it’s still a game . . . ]

[The 3rd period was ours.  I don’t know if they went strictly into a defense mode, or if our pressure was wearing them down – maybe a combination of both . . . ]

[Still, we just couldn’t get one past their goalie.  Here Kristin’s in on offense again . . . ]

[McKenna fires a shoot . . . ]

[Ooops, deflected off to the left . . . ]

[And this was the scene particularly through the last half of the period . . . ]

[Cards are buzzing all around their net . . . ]

[But there goes the puck out the other side . . . ]

[The metaphor for the game – McKenna’s right there, but . . . We all thought, certainly unbiased, that the Cards had the better of the play.  Not only in territorial edge, but in shots, both on-goal and total.  So our fans had a good feeling about the game, even with the loss, and gave the team a nice ovation at the end.  We now have 10 days to get everyone healthy for the start of tournament play. ]

[Breck 3, Alexandria 1. Olivia Mobley scored twice to push Class 1A, No. 2 Breck past No. 3-1A Alexandria.  Marki Oberg scored the Cardinals only goal in the first period, while Mustangs goaltender Uma Corniea stopped 19 shots in the final two periods protect her team’s lead in a 26-save performance.  ~  Minnesota Girls Hockey Hub.  Their star, Mobley (17, you can see her in some photos), lived up to her billing.  She’s only a sophomore, but she’s big, fast, and strong, and apparently has already committed to Quinnipiac’s Division 1 program.]

Then it was on to the entertainment portion of the day’s festivities.  Josie was on a weekend break from her freshman year in college, and was back performing at the winery which she has done since she was 12.

[The aforementioned Josie . . . ]

[Why yes, we are wine club members and picked up our quarterly stock . . . ]

[Everyone loves Josie; and everyone who has been to Budapest loves the city.  So, here’s Josie singing “Budapest.”]

[By 3:00, all tables were taken . . . ]

[You can see through the windows it was a nice wintery day.  As usual, there was a weekend wedding at the winery.  They were taking photos of the wedding party outside – the bride just in her gown in 15-degree snowy weather.  I applauded her Minnesota-ness . . . ]

[I always think of this as Julie and Matt Velline’s song.  But that’s OK.  Josie and the Vellines are a mutual admiration society . . . ]

[So, even with the hockey loss, it was an all around terrific day!]

[Thanks, Josie!]

You can’t get too much winter in winter.  ~  Robert Frost

Up Next:  Uffda?