By Bruce Karnick

[email protected]

Hockey teams across Minnesota are lucky to play in some of the coolest venues around. Our own Hastings Civic Arena has the uniqueness of the McGree Rink.

It adds a level of excitement and energy to a group of kids when they get to play at an NHL training facility that doubles as a WNHL home rink for the Minnesota Whitecaps and is also the home arena for Hamline University. It is also a great place to get action photos of the Raiders on the ice when they get to travel there.

On Saturday, the Raider girls played at TRIA Rink in St. Paul against host Visitation. The rink extends invitations to area schools when there is downtime in their schedule and the Blazers were one such team. They asked the Raiders to join them. Hopefully Visitation isn’t too upset with getting a loss handed to them to not invite Hastings again if the chance presents itself.

16 seconds into the game, Visitation popped a weird goal into the net behind Alexis Steinke. It didn’t sit well with coaches or players. Instead of hanging their heads and looking for blame, Hastings rallied. 2:14 later, at the 2:30 mark. Lauren Skov tied it up with a pretty shot from the middle of the offensive zone with the assist going to Madelyn Schuster. The Blazers took the lead, this time with 16 seconds left in the period.

At the start of the second period, Hastings came out hungry. Skov scored again in the second minute of the period, a shot similar to her first period goal, this time assisted by Grace Gerlach and Karissa Thompson.

In the third, Addie Seleski gave the Raiders the lead and ultimately the win with a goal at 15:32 of the third. Jade Schauer earned the assist.

In net, Steinke faced 14 shots, stopping 12 and Hastings outshot the Blazers 25-14.

Earlier in the week, Hastings dropped both the game against South St. Paul 2-0 and the game against Hill Murray 10-0. The final two regular season games wrapped up this week at press time. Look for those scores in next week’s edition of the Hastings Journal.

Section 3AA quarter finals will be held on Feb. 9. The semifinals will be held Feb. 12 with the finals on Feb. 16. All games are at the high seed’s rink. Seedings are unknown press time.

Editorial note: If you see a certain reporter with blue and gold hair after they win the first section game, don’t laugh too hard. A deal may have been brokered at TRIA Rink as a little motivation for the kids. Plus, it’s only hair, it will grow back!

Addie Seleski scored the game winner against Visitation on Saturday at TRIA Rink in St. Paul. Photo by Bruce Karnick