The Raider girl’s hockey team had a busy week last week with three games in four days. During that quick burst of games, the Raiders went 2-1. First, Simley came to town on December 6, then Two Rivers/St. Paul on December 8 and White Bear Lake on December 9.

Simley Spartans (4-3-1)

The Simley game was the worst defeat of the season so far for Hastings. Makayla Berquist, the leader in points for the Raiders, was out of town, Ava Hoffman is still injured and there were a few other key pieces that were missing. Those pieces missing put other players in positions they do not normally play, which gave the appearance of chaos on the ice, and not the good kind of chaos. Players were out of position which meant missed passes and shots on offense and missed defensive opportunities in their own zone.

“Well, the lines that we went into Tuesday night with were missing a few kids, but that was fine,” said Head Coach Jim Joseph. “Simley is a good hockey team, I don’t know that our lineup would have changed the results.”

Joseph is correct, Simley is a good hockey team, but so is Hastings, especially with the top players in the lineup. The top six-point totals for Hastings are all double digits. In fact, the top six players have 78 total points in 11 games, 78 of the 125 points so far this season. Defensively, Hastings started Bree Balster in the net. Balster gave up five goals in the contest facing 40 shots, for a .875 save percentage. Hastings was only able to muster 10 shots on goal the whole game. Simley won 50.

During the contest, Hastings had four penalties for 19 minutes and Simley had one penalty for two minutes. Simley scored on two of three power plays and Hastings was 0for-1.

Two Rivers / St. Paul Riveters (3-2-0)

The Thursday contest went much better for Hastings. Berquist returned to the starting lineup, and she contributed two goals plus the lineup looked more poised on the ice. Alexis Steinke got the start in the net and Coach Joseph earned his first ever Raider win at home.

Kacey Plank started the scoring for Hastings at 7:32 of the first. Kyra Erickson earned the assist and Hastings was up 1-0. Addie Seleski finally found the back of the net with the help of Brooke Townsend and Libby Knoll, and Hastings went to the intermission up 2-0. Hastings also had the lead in shots on goal 95.

The second period became ugly real fast. There was a total of eight penalties given out in the second period. Keep in mind, each penalty is a minimum of two minutes, and the period is only 17 minutes long. Steinke did have one goal scored on her in the second to bring the score to 2-1, but that goal was an even strength goal. Steinke and the penalty kill defense save the game in the second period. Hastings faced not one, but two 5-on-3 scenarios and one 4-on-3, and they shut them all down. Being short-handed that much in one period still wears on the players physically and mentally, so to have one goal scored in all of that mess is really a testament to both the defenders and to Steinke.

“There were a lot of penalties tonight and it really took some momentum away from us that I thought we had in the first period,” explained Joseph. “Tonight, we were up two nothing after the first they scored one early in the second and the penalties happened, and we just couldn't get the momentum back. We were lucky enough to get it back in the third.”

Coach Joseph explained what changes when the penalty kill goes from one player down to two.

“It's somewhat similar in terms of system stuff, right? We're still kind of covering the same shooting lanes. It's just tighter together. So, we don't have as much ground to cover because we're down one less player.”

Hastings did take the momentum back in the third and the third was a stark contrast to the second with only one penalty call all period. Hastings had the lead 2-1 when Jade Schauer and Kylie Gruden connected with Berquist for her first goal of the game at 4:05. Then at 12:46, Berquist scored again, this time unassisted. Madyn Hanson took a pass from Karissa Thompson for the Raiders third goal of the third period with 1:11 left in the game to make it 5-1.

For the game, Hastings had 26 shots on goal to the Riveters 18. Steinke’s performance in the game, especially the second period, earned her the hard worker of the game hard hat for the second time this season. Steinke stopped 17 of 18 shots for a .944 save percentage and her fourth straight win. Hastings had a total of 14 penalty minutes on seven infractions, Two Rivers had 10 minutes on five infractions. Hastings killed all seven penalties and Two Rivers killed four of the five penalties they faced.

White Bear Lake Bears (2-5-0)

Friday, White Bear Lake came to town after a huge 4-1 win against Hill-Murray. The Pioneers are consistently one of the more difficult teams to beat in the area, so, there was a thought going around that White Bear Lake could be a tough team to beat. The hard work they put into the win over the Pioneers may have come with an emotional and physical hangover for the Hastings game.

Hastings took the lead when Gruden and Madelyn Schuster connected with Berquist on a powerplay at 7:47 in the first giving Hastings the 1-0 lead. Then at the 2:54 mark in the second, Lauren Muhl and Karissa Thompson set Kyra Erickson up for an even strength goal to extend the Raider lead 2-0. White Bear Lake had a powerplay with 1:28 left in the game, and after a flurry of shots, they were unable to find the back of the net thanks in part to the solid defensive play from Hastings and Balster getting in the way of anything else that managed to get close. Luckily for Hastings, many of the shots from the Bears hit Balster center mass or in the leg pads after fighting through traffic.

Hastings had three penalties for six minutes and White Bear Lake had six penalties for 12 minutes. Hastings scored on one of the six powerplays and the Bears missed on all three, giving Hastings the 2-0 win.

Hastings had 24 shots on goal and White Bear had 32. Balster stopped all of them for the 1.000 save percentage For the season, Balster has played in seven games for 357 minutes of action. She has a record of 2-5-0, has faced 191 shots on goal and has stopped 175 with two shutouts. Her save percentage is .916 and she has a goals against average of 2.29. Steinke has played in four games for 204 minutes of action. She has a record of 4-0-0, has faced 50 shots and has stopped 48 of them with two shutouts. Her save percentage is .960 and she has a goals against average of 0.50.

With roughly a third more minutes under her belt, Balster has faced nearly four times as many shots as Steinke has. Balster is a scrappy goalie that mostly stays in the crease and lets the pucks come to her. Steinke is a bit more technical in nature and is more aggressive when it comes to going after and controlling rebounds. In fact, she does a great job controlling or covering rebounds which helps eliminate those close range, second and third shots, reducing the overall shots she sees. Steinke also tracks the puck all over the rink really well, including near the crease. All are factors that should benefit the Raiders come playoff time.

The Raiders have very little time to catch their breath with the co-op of Tartan and North St. Paul coming to town on Tues, Dec 13 and then they travel to South St. Paul to take on the Packers on Fri, Dec 16, both of those games are at 7:00 p.m. Rochester Century comes to town Tues. before Christmas on Dec 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Eagan 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.