Tigers end losing streak vs. Mayo

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Farmington hockey coach Keith Revels was frustrated with his team’s inability to put together three solid periods during a stretch earlier this month where the Tigers saw early 2-0 leads turn into a pair of losses and a tie against Faribault, Winona and Owatonna.

The Tigers got back some confidence with easy victories over St. Peter/L-H/Le Center/M-L and Dodge County, but the high-water mark of their young season came last Tuesday night with a 2-1 victory over Rochester Mayo at Graham Arena in Rochester.

The Spartans had defeated the Tigers at least five times in a row dating back to 2004, with the last three wins coming by scores of 7-0, 6-2 and 9-4.

“That was a nice win for us,” Revels said. “To date our tie and our wins were over teams that we tied and won against last year. Mayo beat us up pretty good last year — netted nine goals against us at home. We played solid defensively and put together three periods of consistent effort.”

Mayo’s lone goal came during a 5 on 3 advantage 7:48 into the second period and tied the game at 1-1. Farmington junior goaltender Aaron Dahl, making his second start of the year, stopped 29 shots to pick up his first win.

The Tigers (4-2-1) opened the scoring 3:28 into the second period when Daniel Handberg scored on a wrister from the left side. Matt Provost and Tyler Grubb assisted on the power-play goal.

The score remained deadlocked at 1-1 for exactly nine minutes. At the 16:48 mark of the second, Grubb worked his way into the middle and scored on assists from Provost and Handberg.

“That was a big goal to give us the lead with 12 seconds left in the second period,” Revels said.

The Farmington defense took over after that, holding Mayo scoreless over the final 17-plus minutes. Revels was especially pleased with the play of returner Jake Sorenson and first-year varsity contributors Andrew Peterson, Jake Eldred and Justin Rees.

“We have three of our four defenders who are rookie-type players getting better every game,” he said.

On the offensive end, the Tigers got a spark from the third line of Kevin Olund, Trevor Howard and Matt Thomas.

“They played well together in all three zones and gave the top two lines much-needed rest. We have a good problem up front, lots of depth.”

The Tigers put their three-game winning streak on the line earlier this week at the Waseca Tournament. Results will appear in next week’s Independent.

Tags: boys hockey, sports