It was a tough week for Raider Girls hockey (6-5) after coming off a two-game win streak. Last week they had a chance to improve their standing in the Metro East Conference with two conference games. First, the cooperative team of North St. Paul and Tartan (4-3) came to town on December 13 before the Raiders traveled to South St. Paul on December 15 to take on the Packers. The games were certainly entertaining, but each of them had some weirdness to them, not in a bad way, just some things that are not normally witnessed in hockey.

It is hard to describe the Tartan/NSP game because the skaters were flying around and had high energy, but both defenses and both goalies were doing a great job clearing rebounds, and the defenders were great at clogging up shooting lanes, so there was only a total of 51 shots on goal between the two teams. But that is an aspect that adds to making this game hard to describe. 51 shots on goal in a high school game is a decent number of shots, it just did not feel like that many made it to the net. It was also a very clean game based on the number of penalties called with just four total. The game itself was a fun game to watch but it was definitely a defensive battle, and it was a quick paced, clean game with plenty of energy from both teams.

The above description of the game being a little quirky can be followed up by the only goal of the game. The faceoff was in the Raider zone to the right of netminder Alexis Steinke. Hastings had one in the penalty box, so they were on the penalty kill. Tartan/NSP had won the faceoff and the puck headed toward the Raider net. At that point, according to fans close to the play, the puck appeared to bounce off the skates of not one, but two Hastings defenders before it found its way past Steinke in the second period. The game finished 1-0 in favor of Tartan/ NSP. Tartan/NSP had 25 shots on goal, scoring one powerplay goal, while Hastings had 26 shots on goal. Tartan/NSP had skaters in the box for six minutes on three infractions while Hastings had only one penalty for two minutes. Unfortunately for Hastings, that one was all that was needed as Tartan/NSP capitalized on the opportunity.

Steinke faced 25 shots and stopping 24 for a .960 save percentage, but the one goal was enough to end her unbeaten streak, moving her to 41 on the season.

The Raiders (6-6) took on South St. Paul (7-2) next and while this one had a few weird shots, the game felt more normal. It was still a fast-paced game, and again it was relatively clean in the scorebook with only four penalties, and there was only one more shot on goal than the Tartan/NSP game.

South St. Paul won the opening faceoff and the weirdest shot this reporter has ever seen was fired at the Raider net. The shot came from the neutral zone, the Packer skater launched the puck high in the air as if she was trying to execute some weird dump and chase move. The problem is, it went at the Raider goal and bounced off the top mesh of the net at the rear cross bar which then launched the puck at netminder Bree Balster’s back. Luckily, the puck deflected off of Balster’s back with a Raider bounce and it went to the bench side corner. It was one of those things that happens so infrequent, any goalie would be surprised by it and likely not be sure how to play it, unless they were also a baseball or softball player and the had the instinct to play it like a pop fly. Yes, it was that strange of an accidental hit of the net. The scorekeeper did not even record it as a shot on goal.

That was not the only weirdness of the first period. Hastings had done plenty of things to keep the puck out of their end, but The Packers were still outshooting them 61 when Madyn Hanson caught a pass from Kyra Erickson and Lauren Muhl at the right faceoff circle in the Packer zone. Hanson fired above the left shoulder of the Packer netminder, and this is where the puck luck came into play once again for Hastings. The puck hit the keepers left shoulder, bounced into the left side of her helmet, then dinged off the crossbar into the net to give the Raiders the lead. Usually that many ricochets will cause the puck to miss, but not this time. Hastings had the 1-0 lead at 10:15 in the first period.

The first period was about as balanced for time of possession as the Raiders needed to maintain the 1-0 lead, especially considering that South St. Paul had a powerplay in the middle of the period. That is when the Raider defense stepped up big, especially the pairing of Lauren Muhl and Madelyn Schuster. They did an outstanding job shutting down the Packer powerplay for the first time of the game. With 16 minutes of the first 17 expired, it looked as though Hastings was poised to shut down the high-powered Packer offense, but that changed four seconds later when South St. Paul scored to tie the game 1-1 into the first intermission.

Period two, the speed, size and physicality of the Packers began to wear down Hastings. Bigger and/or stronger teams tend to toe the line of penalty, or not very well and South St. Paul did that. There were some things that could have and probably should have been called penalties, but the officials did not agree, so play continued. South St. Paul scored twice in the second to extend their lead 3-1 at the second intermission.

The third period began, and it took 2:48 for South St. Paul to get their fourth goal of the game, 40 seconds later, they had their fifth and it was 5-1 South St. Paul. At 8:46, another goal was scored, and Hastings was down 6-1. That is when Head Coach Jim Joseph made the call to pull Balster from the net and replace her with Steinke with 8:14 left to go in the game.

By now, South St. Paul had peppered Balster with 34 shots on goal and she was already warmed up. Steinke went in and, according to the scorebook, only faced four shots in the last eight minutes of the game. That may change once coaches review the film, but at the time of this writing, the shots faced were split 34 for Balster and four for Steinke.

The game ended 6-1 Packers. Hastings had 14 shots on goal to South St. Paul’s 38. Hastings sat in the penalty box three times for six minutes and South St. Paul went once for two minutes. Both teams were perfect killing the penalties they faced.

Balster faced 34 shots stopping 28 of them, and Steinke saved all four shots she faced. Both Raider netminders have two shutouts this season.

The Raiders will host Eagan on Thursday which will be the last game before Christmas weekend, at home and at 7:30 p.m. Sadly, after Eagan, the Raiders will be on the road for seven of their nine remaining games of the season.