The Raiders Girls Hockey Team took a weekend long trip to New Hope for the Holiday Tournament where they faced three tough opponents. Against Robbinsdale Armstrong/Cooper, the girls had an impressive 5-2 win. Their second game was against Park of Cottage Grove. Their first regular season meeting was a 3-1 Park win and the Raiders could not shake that monkey off their backs falling 4-3 in the tournament. Park did go on to win the championship for the tournament. The final game was against Bemidji and Hastings fell 3-2.
Against Robbinsdale
The game against Robbinsdale was a fun one. Freshman Anni Schriefer put the girls up 1-0 18 seconds into the game with the assist going to Lauren Muhl. This set the aggressive tone for the Raiders and Robbinsdale was not happy about it with the game becoming more and more chippy as time went on.
Addie Seleski and Grace Petrich connected with Jade Schauer at 9:34 for the Raiders second goal of the period. Robbinsdale answered at 13:14 to send the game to the intermission with the Raiders up 2-1.
The game really started to get chippy in the second period, with the girls on both sides poking the proverbial bear as much as they could. Normally, we avoid talking about penalties, but this is the rare exception due to the reason for the penalty.
At 8:14, Victoria Steinke made a routine save and one of the Robbinsdale players decided it would be a good idea to spray snow into Steinke’s face. This did not sit well with any of the Raiders and Schriefer was the closest skater to the play. Schriefer wasted no time defending her goalie, she stepped right up to the bigger Robbinsdale player and pushed her away from the crease. Of course, the retaliation did earn Schriefer a penalty for roughing, but it was a penalty that any team is going to take to protect their keeper even if the coach is supposed to not condone it. The Robbinsdale player was also called for unsportsmanlike conduct and they both went off the ice for two minutes.
Just three minutes later, at 11:14 of the second period, Robbinsdale tied the game at two. Hastings had their chance to take the lead and at 15:19, they did just that. Petrich scored with the assists going to Schauer and Josie Hamann. 26 seconds later, they tallied another goal to go up 4-2. Allie Werner found white lace with the help of Schriefer and Hamann and the Raiders took the two-goal lead to the intermission.
2:03 into the third period, Hamman finally logged a goal instead of an assist to dagger the Wings chances of a comeback. Assisting on that goal were Werner and Sophie Thorkelson. Hastings won 5-2.
Both teams killed 100 percent of the penalties they faced with Hastings having 14 penalty minutes on seven infractions and Robbinsdale having six minutes on three infractions.
In net, Steinke faced 27 shots stopping 25 for a .926 save percentage. The Wings faced 34 shots, stopping 29 for a .853 save percentage.
Against Park of Cottage Grove
Again, Hastings drew first blood, this time off the stick of Muhl at 9:08 in the first. Muhl was assisted by Haley Siebenaler and Schiefer. Park tied the game at 14:41 and at the first horn, the score was knotted at one.
Park came out and dominated the second period scoring three goals on 18 shots while holding the Raiders to just four shots. Hastings flipped the script in the third and outshot the Wolfpack 9-3. Two of those nine shots found the back of the net. At 7:21, Petrich scored with the assist going to Thorkelson and at 15:19, Muhl scored her second of the game with assists going to the same duo, Siebenaler and Schriefer. Hastings fell short of tying the game and they lost 4-3 in regulation.
This game was a much cleaner game with only three total infractions for six minutes. Park had two of the penalties and Hastings only one. Neither team was able to score with the skater advantage.
Steinke faced 32 shots stopping 28 for a .875 save percentage and Park faced 23 shots stopping 20 for a .870 save percentage.
Against Bemidji
The game against the Lumberjacks was a fast moving and clean game with only a total of four penalties called all game.
Bemidji took the early lead, scoring at 2:22 of the first. The Raiders struggled to log shots on goal for the first two periods, shooting four times in the first and five in the second being out shot the first two periods 21 to 9. That changed in the third after Bemidji went up 2-0 just 18 seconds into the period. If you are a KFAN listener, you know that the two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, and that came true here.
Hastings just had to make it interesting, scoring two goals late in the third period just 30 seconds apart. Schriefer put the first one in at 15:11 with the help of Siebenaler and Thorkelson and Addie Seleski finally hit the back of the net in the tournament at 15:41 with the assist going to Schauer. Regulation ended with the game tied at two.
Unfortunately, that lit a fire under the skates of Bemidji and they outshot the Raiders 4-2 in the extra period with all the action taking place in 1:37 of bonus hockey. The Lumberjacks scored the game winner sending Hastings home from the tournament with one win and two close losses.
In the final game, both teams had four penalty minutes on two infractions and both were perfect on the penalty kill. Steinke faced 36 shots stopping 33 for a .917 save percentage and Bemidji faced 23 shots stopping 21 for a .913 save percentage.
Up Next
After playing five of the last seven games on the road, Hastings returns home on Jan. 3 to host Hill-Murray at 6:30 p.m. Then they go on the road for eight out of their last ten games of the season. Five of their next games are away with the first being at West St. Paul Arena to take on Two Rivers/St. Paul on Jan. 7 at 7:00 p.m.