The Raider girl’s hockey team only had one game last week, a road trip to Rosemount. A road trip that did not go as planned.

Rosemount excelled at keeping the puck away from the Raiders for the majority of the game limiting the Raider offense to 22 shots on goal for the entire game. They also kept the pressure on the Raider defense logging a total of 49 shots on goal.

The first period, the Irish scored at the 14:55 mark of the first to take a 1-0 lead. 33 seconds later they made it 2-0. The period ended with Hastings having four shots on goal to Rosemount’s 13. Bree Balster had the start in net, and she did a good job holding Rosemount to two goals in the first 29 minutes of the game, stopping 21 of the 23 shots she faced.

Hastings cut the lead in half when Karissa Thompson scored at the 11:36 mark of the second period. Thompson scored on the power play and was assisted by Jade Schauer and Madelyn Schuster. Rosemount scored 58 seconds later to make it 3-1 and that is when the flood gates opened. The Irish scored two additional times in the next 56 seconds to make the score 5-1.

Rosemount scored again, making it four goals in the span of 1:28.

Goalie Alexis Steinke took the net at the end of the barrage and settled in for the third period, and the offense took a little pressure off by scoring on the power play at 1:39 into the third. This time Schauer and Madyn Hanson assisted Madelyn Schuster on the goal to cut the Rosemount lead to 6-2. At 12:35, Rosemount scored their final goal to win 7-2.

Hastings was 2-for-3 on the power play, and they successfully stopped all three power plays that Rosemount had. Hastings had a total of 22 shots on goal to Rosemount’s 49. Both teams had six penalty minutes on three infractions.

Balster faced 26 shots, stopping 21 for a .808 save percentage. For the year Balster has seen 251 shots on goal, stopping 224 for a 3.20 goals against average and a .892 save percentage and a record of 2-7. Steinke saw 23 shots for the game, stopping 21 for a .913 save percentage. For the year, Steinke has seen 118 shots, stopping 111 for a 1.07 goals against average and a .941 save percentage and a record of 5-1.

With the girl’s hockey season starting almost three weeks prior to the rest of the winter season, that means their season is going to end sooner and all regular season games will be done by the end of January. With only a few weeks left, it is time to start glancing at the conference and section standings as well as QRF or Quality Results Formula, a ranking system that the sections use to help figure out placement. QRF ranks wins and losses based on the quality of the opponent. It looks at the strength of the opponent’s schedule. For example, right now, Park of Cottage Grove is 6-5 with a QRF ranking of 29. They are the 29th best team in the state currently, Hastings is 40th at 7-8. Blaine is 6-3-1 and QRF ranked at 17th. Based on record alone, Hastings should have the opportunity to beat either of those teams, but a win over Blaine would give them a bigger boost in the QRF ranking because they are worth more given their strength of schedule.

QRF is an interesting animal. Some people hate it, others love it. Hastings, at 6-7 for the QRF ranking period, had a QRF score of 38.6 which placed them at 40 out of 61 teams in class AA. Wayzata for example, had a record of 2-8 but was 42 in QRF ranking with a 35 while Rochester Century was ranked 44th with a QRF of 34.2 with a record of 5-5.

So where does Hastings truly sit? In Section 3AA, they are 0-1 with the loss against Rosemount which puts them in fifth currently. They are 1-3 in the Metro East Conference, which puts them in fifth as well. In Class AA, they are ranked 40th out of 61 teams and in the state, they are ranked 57th out of 111 teams. Their schedule is not going to get any easier with Hill-Murray coming to town on Jan 3 at 7:30. The Pioneers are ranked eighth in the state. If Hastings pulls off a win there, that will give them a big boost in all of the rankings. We’ll get you that recap next week.

Hastings will travel to Two Rivers on Jan 6 and to Simley on Jan 10, both at 7:00 p.m. Their next home game is senior night on Jan 20 against South St. Paul at 7:30 p.m.

The girls celebrate the second Raider goal of the game, Madelyn Schuster earned the goal and was assisted by Jade Schauer and Madyn Hanson. Photo by Bruce Karnick