Boys hockey: Streaking Tigers claim title at Waseca

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Farmington’s first appearance in the Waseca Holiday Tournament was a successful one.

The Tigers rattled off three straight victories by a combined score of 23-6, including a 4-1 win over Mankato East/Loyola on Wednesday afternoon, to capture the championship.

Junior Tyler Grubb scored seven goals in the tournament, including two in the championship game. He opened the scoring with a power play goal on a pass from Jacob Eldred 2:41 into the first period. Just over two minutes later Devin Ingebrigtson kept the fast start going by scoring top-shelf with assists from Tylor Bambenek and Justin Rees.

Farmington sophomore goaltender Trevor Zangs kept the score at 2-0 by stopping all 23 Mankato East/Loyola shots that came his way over the first two periods. He finished with 30 saves as he improved his record to 5-2 in seven starts.

The Cougars scored their lone goal 2:59 into the third to cut their deficit in half, but Grubb fired a shot off the far post and in at 5:11 to push the Farmington lead back to 3-1. Grubb later found Daniel Handberg for an empty-netter at 16:53 to cap the scoring.

Farmington advanced to the finals by doubling up host Waseca, 6-3, on Tuesday night.

The usually fast-starting Tigers worked their way through a penalty-filled opening two periods clinging to a 3-3 tie before exploding for three goals in a two-and-a-half minute span in the third period to ice the game.

“We had been averaging about 4 or 5 penalties coming into the game. We took the first seven penalties in the contest — four in the first, five in the second and two in the third,” Farmington coach Keith Revels said. “Our depth advantage was null due to the amount of specialty play in the first two periods.”

The Tigers turned it around in the third, posting a 21-6 advantage in shots on goal while playing mostly 5 on 5 hockey. Freshman Kevin Olund started the spurt with his first career goal on a pass from Zach Payne at the 5:25 mark, then 38 seconds later Andrew Thomas found the net with help from Bambenek and Ingebrigtson. Jake Sorensen made it three goals in a row with his second of the season at 7:50.

“In the end it was a good test for the boys,” Revels said. “We played through some things and kept our focus.”

Junior Aaron Dahl got the start between the pipes and stopped 20 of 23 shots.

Farmington’s other three goals came from Handberg (8:58 of the first), Ingebrigtson (10:02 of the first) and Grubb (shorthanded, 10:12 of the second).

Just about every Farmington player got in on the scoring in Monday’s tournament-opening 13-2 rout of Windom.

Grubb scored in every period and finished with a season-high four goals. Thomas doubled his season goal total with his first hat trick and Ingebrigtson scored twice. The Tigers got single goals from Payne, Bambenek, William Rose and Andrew Peterson.

Rees and Handberg each finished with three assists.

Zangs got the start in goal and registered 20 saves.

The Tigers open Missota Conference play this week with a pair of tough games. They hosted fifth-ranked Holy Angels on Tuesday and travel to New Prague on Friday.

Tags: boys hockey, sports, prep