Girls hockey: Possible playoff preview goes to Panthers

• Girls hockey

Farmington's Betsy Anderson skates with the puck during a recent game.

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For a while on Saturday afternoon, it looked like Farmington’s girls hockey team might finally break through for the quality win it’s been looking against one of its Section 1AA rivals.

The Tigers, facing a Lakeville North team that knocked them out of the section tournament last February, led 1-0 after a period and remained deadlocked at two apiece through two before the Panthers skated away for a 4-2 win Saturday at Ames Arena.

The Panthers outshot the Tigers 42-18, including 39-10 over the final two periods. Goaltender Jessica Erchul stopped 38 shots, but the Panthers were able to get the puck past her on three of their four power plays before capping off the scoring with a short-handed goal late in the third.

Senior Krystal Baumann opened the Farmington scoring with her metro-leading 11th goal of the young season (assist to Hannah Alexander) at the 15:48 mark of the first. North had taken a 2-1 lead by the time Betsy Anderson answered with her first goal of the season to tie the game with less than a minute left in the second.

The score stayed tied just over two minutes before North’s Ashley Kloncz scored her second power play goal at 2:46 of the third.

The Tigers overcame a slow start in Tuesday’s Missota Conference season opener at Chaska Community Center, but eventually recovered to double up Chaska/Chanhassen, 6-3.

Chaska/Chanhassen opened the scoring just 1:34 into the first and the home team held a 1-0 lead all the way through the first period.

Farmington finally got on the board 1:53 into the second when Baumann scored on a pass from Alexander. Alexander followed with a goal of her own on passes from Baumann and Chloe Batta and Batta closed out the second period with a short-handed goal (assist from Anderson) to make it 3-1 in favor of the visitors.

Baumann scored three more times in a five-minute period in the third, completing her second-four-goal game of the season and expanding the Tigers’ advantage to 6-1. Alexander and Batta each assisted on two of the third-period scores.

Kaitlin Storo scored two late goals against Erchul, who finished with 30 saves on 33 shots.

The Tigers (2-3, 1-0) resumed their Missota Conference slate Tuesday night with a home game against Red Wing at Schmitz-Maki Arena. They are back on the road tonight when they travel southwest to take on New Prague for a non-conference game at 7:15 p.m.

Tags: girls hockey, sports, farmington, tigers, prep