By Derek Simon

[email protected]

The Hastings Varsity Girls Hockey Team finally returned to action on Friday night. The Raiders, coming off a tough 6-19 season, return several players from last year’s team, most notably Kaitlin Petrich and Lauren Dubej. Petrich led the team in goals last year with 14 and points with 20. Dubej was the leading goaltender from the team last season. It was a tough draw for opening night as the opponent was the seventh ranked Hill Murray Pioneers. The teams met once last year at Aldrich arena, where the Pioneers defeated the Raiders 7-1, outshooting them 37-11. The Pioneers would go on to make the State Tournament.

Just as she did in last year’s game against Hill Murray, Petrich would give Hastings a 1-0 lead when she scored at 8:28 of the first period.

“it just snuck past her skates in the middle, it went off her left skate and then went in very slowly, so I was just excited to get the first,” Petrich said about the goal.

A single assist was awarded to Lexi Ramsbacher.

“Well it’s like with a team like that. I mean, that’s when you’re playing Hill Murray it’s a huge boost, and we wanted to jump on them pretty quick. So, ya know the energy just is out of the out of the roof or the arena. So, no, it was great, when they did that everyone was pumped everyone was jacked and it’s just like let’s line up and let’s go get another one,” Coach Tim Duggan said about the goal.

Hastings held onto the lead until 15:26 when Hill Murray finally beat Dubej. The first period ended with the score tied 1-1. Hill Murray outshot Hastings 11-6 in the period.

The game remained tied until just past halfway of the second period. Hill Murray scored at 11:11 on the power play to take a 2-1 lead. Just 2:20 later they scored again to give them a 3-1 lead. The score remained 3-1 after two periods as the Raiders were unable to get many chances on net. The Pioneers held a 12-5 advantage in shots in the second period.

In the third period, Hill Murray struck on the power play. The goal at 5:41 of the third period gave the Pioneers a 4-1 lead. Hastings responded soon after with a power play goal of their own at 7:16. Makayla Berquist scored her first of the season, assisted by Ava Hale and Kylie Gruden. The goal would be Hastings last of the game, and at 11:28 Hill Murray added the final goal in a 5-2 victory. Hill Murray outshot Hastings 16-7 in the third period.

Hill Murray wins 5-2 outshooting Hastings 39-18 in the game. Hill Murray was 2-4 on the power play, while the Raiders were 1-3. Dubej would finish with 34 saves on the night. Even in the loss, there were some encouraging signs for the Raiders. At the halfway point of the game, they were tied 1-1 against the seventh ranked team in the preseason poll.

“I thought we just ran out of gas you know as coaches we; I think we need to get them in better shape. Maybe we do some more flow drills and whatnot, but I think if they were you know obviously those penalties hurt us. We just haven’t had time to work on that stuff. So that’s obviously that’s number one on Monday,” Duggan stated.

The offense looked improved with more goals, shots and chances. The defense gave up fewer goals as well.

“Oh, it was good, other than we struggled picking up sticks, we always watch the puck, as we did in the past, but we just need to work on that it’s early in the year we can fix it,” senior McKenna Benson commented on the defense.

Coach Duggan, “Ten wins would be a nice goal for us this season.”

The Raiders return to action on Tuesday against Simley. The Spartans are 1-1 on the young season, 1-0 in conference with a win over Henry Sibley 6-1. On Saturday Hastings will travel to the TRIA rink in Saint Paul where they will face off against Mahtomedi.

The Raider girls celebrate after their second goal of the game is scored by #24 Makayla Bergquist, assisted by #2 Ava Hale and #6 Kylie Gruden. Photo by Bruce Karnick