The week of Dec. 4-10 was not kind to the lady pucksters. The Raiders entered the week 4-2 with a matchup against the 4-1 St. Paul Riveters (a combo of Two Rivers High School and a nearby St. Paul school.) Then Hastings took a trip up Highway 61 to take on White Bear Lake.

At Two Rivers, the game was… drama filled? Yeah, it could be called that. …rough? Sure, how about energetic? Yes, that seems like the nicest way to put it. The girls on both sides were very energetic. There was a lot of aggression on the ice, especially from some of the Riveters.

Unfortunately for this story, the scorebook is a little difficult to decipher and it looks like data was entered inaccurately. Addie Seleski scored unassisted for the first Raiders goal of the game, and the first Riveters goal description needs to finish the thought on the penalties in the game.

There were seven total penalties called, with five against the Raiders for 10 minutes and two for four minutes for St Paul. There were a few doozies that could have been called, like an elbow to the head, a lot of tripping calls, or launching a Raider into their own goal long after the whistle was blown. That last one was called. Victoria Steinke had just made a diving stoppage of play and one of the Riveters kept hitting her with her stick. The rest of the Raiders stepped up and protected their goalie.

As the extra-curriculars were wrapping up in front of Steinke, and the whistle had been blown for a good 10 seconds, one of the Riveters flew in from the blue line and leveled one of the Raiders in front of the net. A dangerous and intentional move by the player. The St. Paul player should have been ejected for the hit and the team should have had a player serve a five-minute major. Instead, it was a two-minute roughing penalty. Hastings had two in the box and St. Paul one, giving the Riveters a 4-on-3 advantage. It did not take long for St. Paul to score, and the game was tied.

The regulation time finished 1-1 and after a brief break, overtime started. Just as the game had gone all night long, overtime was a lot of back and forth. The problem for Hastings is that they have not had to endure that much skating for three-plus periods, and their legs were starting to show it. 5:30 into OT it took three total shots in succession to sneak one past Steinke. She stopped the initial shot and a decently positioned rebound that was quickly shot again, but she could not stop the third shot which should ideally never have happened, and the game was over.

Steinke faced 33 shots, stopping 31 for a .939 save percentage. Hastings was very close with 30 shots on the St. Paul goal and worth a .967 save percentage for the Riveters. With all the penalties, Hastings was unable to convert on the two powerplays they had, and St. Paul only capitalized on one of their five powerplays.

The game at White Bear Lake went a little differently. White Bear scored once each in the first, second, and third periods giving them the 3-0 lead with just under 11 minutes left to play in the game. Hastings fought hard and was no match for White Bear, but with 18 seconds left, Olyvia Erickson and Addie Seleski connected with Autumn Burt for the first Raider goal of the night avoiding the shutout loss.

Hastings did better regarding trips to the penalty box serving only three times in the game for a total of six minutes. White Bear Lake went once for two minutes. Both teams killed all the penalties they faced.

Hastings only had 18 total shots on goal while White Bear Lake peppered Steinke in comparison with 39 shots on goal which was good for a .939 save percentage. After eight games, Steinke has faced 219 shots on goal in 404 minutes of play. Of the 219 shots faced, she has made 201 saves for a .918 save percentage so far this season. The Raiders offense has 242 shots on net while scoring 27 goals in eight games or a 3.375 goal per game average.

The Raiders will host South St. Paul on Friday, Dec. 15 at 7:00 p.m. then they travel to Rochester Century on Tuesday, Dec 19 at 7:15 p.m. Then Hastings has a super unique opportunity to play host to the Cottage Grove Wolfpack on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 1:00 p.m. at the outdoor Scheels Rink at the Traditions Veterans Complex on the property at United Heroes League at 15221 Ravenna Trail, Hastings. Fans should be prepared to be standing outdoors at all times and to come early. There is a campfire to sit around and a memorial to visit, and there may even be concessions available, but the details of that are still being worked on.