As the sports saying goes, ‘have a short memory’ when it comes to the next game, and that is exactly what the Raiders (2-1) did. After falling to Owatonna 5-1, the girls bounced back nicely against Rochester Mayo with a 6-0 win.

Coming off the win against Red Wing, the Raiders were riding the high of the season-opening win, unfortunately, Owatonna came to town and knocked the wind out of the Raider’s sails. Hastings struck first when Autumn Burt and Lauren Muhl connected with Ava Hoffman on an even-strength goal at 12:58 in the first period. Hoffman skated around a Huskies defender and went backhand to forehand to get behind the Huskies goalie for an easy backhand push for the goal.

Less than a minute later, Owatonna put one past Victoria Steinke to tie things up and send the teams to the locker room with a goal apiece.

The only goal scored in the second period was an even-strength goal by Owatonna 4:18 into the period. The problem at hand was the scoreboard showed 33 shots on goal for Owatonna and only five for Hastings with only one shot occurring in the second period. The Raiders could not garner any offense against the bigger, more physical Huskies and Hastings was showing signs of tiring.

At the start of the third period, Hastings caught a second wind, but that was short-lived until Owatonna went to the penalty box at 6:35 into the period. The third wind hit the Raiders and their offense took advantage of the powerplay by putting 10 shots on goal during the penalty. Unfortunately, none of the shots found the back of the net and Hastings still trailed 2-1.

That is when the floodgates opened for Owatonna. A questionable roughing call on Addie Seleski gave the Huskies a man advantage and the energy-depleted Raiders quickly fell behind 3-1 at 10:05 expired in the third period. Owatonna wasted no time piling it on the reeling Raiders and 31 seconds later they made it 4-1. The game finished 5-1 thanks to an empty net goal.

Hastings had a total of 19 shots on goal with 14 of them coming in the third period while Owatonna had 38 shots on goal. Hastings did a good job stifling the quantity of Husky shots in the third, unfortunately, of the five shots Owatonna made, three of them were quality shots.

Steinke faced 37 shots in goal, stopping 33 of them for a .892 save percentage compared to Owatonna stopping 18-of-19 for a .947 save percentage.

Hastings led in penalties with 12 minutes on six infractions to Owatonna’s four minutes on two visits to the box. Hastings was unable to score on both of their power plays and defensively, they did really well shorthanded shutting down five of the six power plays they faced. The tough reality of having six penalties is that it wears your skaters down faster than skating full strength, especially against more physical teams.

The Rochester Mayo Spartans made the trip up Highway 52 for a Saturday matinee game to take on the not-so-happy Raiders. Hastings came out of the locker room looking to prove a point after the disappointing loss just a few days earlier. Hastings took more shots on goal in the first period of this game than the entire game against Owatonna, 20. It did not translate to points in the first period, but it set the precedent and tired out the Spartans by keeping them on their heels the rest of the game. The teams went to the locker room tied 0-0 at the first intermission.

2:21 into the second period, the bombardment on the Spartans goalie in the first period paid off. Grace Petrich connected with Jade Schauer who buried her first goal of the season to draw first blood. Like sharks, the Raiders kept the frenzied attacks up for the rest of the game. Maddy Schuster scored her first two goals of the season in the second period. The first came unassisted at 9:40 and Petrich earned her second point of the game assisting Schuster’s second goal at 15:26. Hastings took the 3-0 lead to the locker room at the second intermission.

The Raiders were not done scoring, not by a long shot. Autumn Burt finally logged her first goal of the season after several great attempts in the first two-plus games. Burt scored at 6:18 into the third assisted by Olyvia Erickson and Seleski. Not long after, Seleski scored her second goal of the season assisted by Petrich, her third point of the game, and Madyn Hanson. Hoffman scored the final goal of the game at 13:14 and Hastings won 6-0.

In the shutout, Steinke saved 13 shots while Hastings put 39 on the net. Again, penalties were an issue for Hastings with 10 minutes on five infractions while Rochester went to the box twice for four minutes. Both team’s penalty kill did their jobs well and no power-play goals were scored.

Hastings improved to 2-1 for the young season and still has some things to figure out, primarily the penalty issue. It is clear that this team wants to be more aggressive on offense and have a bend but not break defense, both of which they have done mostly well in the first three games. Hastings has had 15 penalties in three games compared to their opponents’ six. Thankfully the penalty kill has been phenomenal for the first three games killing 86.7 percent of the penalties, but the best penalty kill is to not get penalties. Once Head Coach Jim Joseph works that out with the girls, this team that is already fun to watch will be that much more entertaining and it should smooth out the overall flow of the game for the Raiders.

The Raiders have one game left in November, Apple Valley comes to town on Nov. 28 at 7:00 p.m. Then they hit the ice hard with seven games from the start of December until Christmas. After Christmas, they travel to the Burnsville Holiday Tournament for three games to wrap up 2023.