Boys hockey: A little rest does Tigers good

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It wasn't anticipated, but the Farmington boys hockey team had a bit of a break in action last week.

Tuesday's home game against Dodge County was postponed after Dodge County canceled school because of snow and cold weather. That meant five days between the Tigers' last game, a 6-5 win against Winona and last Thursday's meeting with Rochester John Marshall.

The layoff didn't hurt Farmington, and it might have helped. The Tigers came out strong in a 3-1 win against John Marshall.

"The extra practice is never a bad thing, especially early in the season," Farmington coach Keith Revels said. "It was a little disappointing not to play, but it did open an opportunity to condition and get a good hard skate in."

The Tigers were ready for Thursday.

Farmington scored just 33 seconds into the first period against John Marshall.

Dan Erickson scored on a rebound through traffic in front of the Rochester goaltender. Greg Werner and Drew Schaeppi assisted on the play.

"It was great to see Dan score a big goal," Revels said. "We have him spot shifting in different spots at the moment. He made the most of his opportunity and got us on the board first."

After Rochester tied the game heading into the first intermission, Farmington closed out the scoring with a pair of goals.

In the second period, the Tigers' Tyler Grubb split a pair of defenders and wristed home a shot past the goalies low glove side. Quinn Malcolm got the assist.

The final score came 15:51 into the third as a penalty to Werner expired.

Werner came out of the box ahead of the play and received a pass to beat the defense back. He put a shot on net, which was stopped. But Zach Payne crashed the net, collected the rebound and put it by the goaltender.

"We took control in the second and third and we were much better defensively," Revels said. "We only gave up 10 shots in the second and third, compared to 12 in the first. Those numbers were in spite of playing short-handed quite a bit.

"We weren't getting the calls, but the boys did a nice job of staying focused just the same."

Aaron Dahl enjoyed the defense support and provided the final stop. He made 21 saves in goal.

"Dahl played solid, especially in the first when he was pretty busy," Revels said.

And the win should provide help for the Tigers later, in section seeding.

"One would hope that with the road win, John Marshall would be seeded below us," Revels said, with his squad now 2-0 against section opponents.

Farmington then had another week off before competition. The Tigers travel to Rochester Lourdes tonight for a game.

No date has been announced for a make-up game between Farmington and Dodge County, and Revels wasn't sure if it would be rescheduled.

Tags: sports, boys, hockey