The Raiders girl’s hockey team entered the week at 8-8 with their two toughest opponents ahead of them, a rematch with the high-flying Simley Spartans who were ranked 20th in the state and the third-ranked Gentry Academy. In that two-game series, Hastings was outscored 16-1.

The games were similar in flow. Hastings would try to clear the puck out of their defensive zone several times, eventually get it to neutral ice, only to have the opponent win the neutral ice battle and the puck was right back in the Hastings zone. Every once in a while, Hastings managed to get the puck to their offensive zone, but they were quickly shut down and going back to play defense.

Simley had 39 shots on goal. On the flip side, Hastings only managed to take 12 shots total. Eight of the 12 shots from Hastings happened in the first period which included the lone goal for Hastings. Kyra Erickson scored at 10:05 of the first with assists going to Kylie Gruden and Makayla Berquist. In the remaining 34 minutes of play, Hastings managed just four shots. Bree Balster started the game for Hastings and to her credit, 90 percent of the game was played either in the Raiders defensive zone or the neutral zone. With that much action in front of them, that is not going to go well for any goalie. The game ended with Simley winning 5-1.

Against Gentry Academy, things fared even worse. Gentry scored within the first three minutes of the game. Hastings was on the powerplay and had the puck in the Gentry zone all of eight seconds. 26 seconds after the 5-on-4 powerplay started for Hastings, Gentry scored. For the rest of the Raider powerplay, the puck was in the Raider zone. Gentry had two more penalties in the first half of the game and of those six minutes, Gentry controlled the puck for 5:15 or more even though they were short-handed.

Hastings was not able to get a shot off the entire first period, but Gentry had taken 25 shots and had the lead 4-0 after 17 minutes of play. By the time the middle of the second period had come around, Hastings had managed two shots.

The last half of the second period, Gentry managed four shots on goal and in the third period, they managed 11 shots. Of those 15 shots, one went in. Gentry’s aggressiveness did not change in the last half of the game, they received three penalties in the third period much like they did in the first. Two penalties for slashing and one for cross-checking, two of those came in the last two minutes of play giving Hastings a 5-3 advantage.

Gentry won 11-0. The final shots on goal were 65 for Gentry and nine for Hastings.

Gentry is a charter school that focuses on Hockey, Lacrosse and Soccer. It was started by a couple that had two sons who were exceptional hockey players at a young age. The family started Gentry Academy to further their two kids’ hockey careers, both of whom ended up being the two youngest players ever recruited by the University of Minnesota at ages 13 and 14.

Gentry Academy was created with one thing in mind: hockey domination. The students at Gentry practice their sport during school hours, which gives them hundreds of hours or additional practice time that is part of the school day.

In two games, Hastings goalies faced 104 shots, stopping 88 of them and the Hastings offense made 21 shots on goal. Hasting had five penalties for 10 minutes to the opponents nine penalties for 18 minutes.

Coming up, Hastings will host South St. Paul on Jan. 20 with the game scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Senior Night festivities will start around 7:15 as the team will celebrate its 14 seniors. On Jan. 23, Eagan comes to town for a 6 p.m. puck drop, with Parent Night festivities starting between 5:30 and 5:45.