The Raider Girls hockey team earned the eighth seed of the section tournament which put them on the road against the number one seeded Rosemount Irish. Hastings came into the tournament at 10-13-2 and Rosemount 18-7-0. Rosemount ultimately won 4-1, ending the Raiders season.
The first half of the first period seemed like a lot of both teams trying to establish something offensively and Rosemount was clearly winning that battle. At 7:36, the Irish drew first blood and by the time the period was over, the game felt like it was over. Rosemount had full control of the puck, a 3-0 lead and they kept Hastings to three shots on goal compared to their own 15 shots on goal.
Before the game, Goalie Coach Josh Colvin was asked what it was going to take for the Raiders to win and his response was simple:
“Vic is going to have to play a great game.”
The simplicity of the statement was that Senior Goalie Victoria Steinke was going to have to do everything in her power to keep the Raiders in the game, and truly, she did. All three goals in the first period were from second rebounds. On each goal, Steinke made two consecutive great saves, but the third shot is what got by her and the rest of the Raiders defense. The Raider skaters were unable to protect their goalie from the onslaught of the Irish offense and the inability for the defense to clear the puck from the front of the net in the first period was a huge part of the loss.
Hastings cleaned that up significantly in the second and third periods. There were no goals in the second even though Hastings was once again outshot, this time 17-6.
The third period was by far the best period for Hastings. The defense stepped up big allowing only 10 shots to reach Steinke and they also stepped up on the offensive end of the ice with nine shots on goal with one that went in. At 4:58, Clare Rieder and Sophie Thorkelson connected with Jade Schauer to score the lone goal for Hastings. Unfortunately, they made the adjustments too late and fell to the Irish 4-1 after Rosemount logged an empty net goal at 16:29 in the third.
Overall, the game was cleanly played with only six total penalty minutes on three infractions. Hastings had two of the three penalties, and Rosemount was able to capitalize on one of their skater advantages. Rosemount dominated the shots on goal stat line, winning that 42-18. Steinke finished the night stopping 38 of the 41 shots she faced for a .927 save percentage.
With the season over, Hastings will graduate eight seniors from the varsity roster, Kacey Plank, Jade Schauer, Clare Rieder, Lauren Muhl, Grace Petrich, Lillian Dostal, Addie Seleski and Victoria Steinke. We would like to give the departing seniors a huge thank you for the years of commitment to the hockey program and we wish them the best of everything in their future endeavors.