Girls hockey: Tigers alone atop Missota

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A tougher non-league schedule is keeping Farmington’s overall record in check, but the Tigers are still taking care of business in the Missota Conference.

The defending conference champions improved to 4-0 in Missota play and sit alone in first place after rolling past Shakopee, 7-3, Thursday night at the Shakopee Community Center.

“It was a penalty-filled game. I thought that we did a decent job staying out of the chippiness,” Farmington head coach Jon Holmes said. “We by no means played our best game, but we did manage to come out with a decisive win.”

The Sabers took the early lead on a goal by Lauren Hespenheide 8:04 into the first period, but the Tigers answered with two goals of their own in the next two minutes to take the lead for good.

Chloe Batta opened the scoring with a goal (assists from Hannah Alexander and Krystal Baumann) at the 8:27 mark and Alexander found the net on the power play (assist by Baumann) just over a minute later.

Alexander’s second power play goal (assists from Batta and Rachael Peroutky) came five minutes later and made it 3-1 through a period.

Alexander added a goal in the final two minutes of the third to pick up her first hat trick of the season. She is second on the team behind Baumann with eight goals and first in assists with 12.

“Hannah has been playing really well all season and it has been great to see her get rewarded for her efforts in the last couple games,” Holmes said. “She is such a solid player and hopefully she can begin to climb toward the end of the year.”

Batta added a second goal, this time on the power play, in the third period and Baumann and Haley Doll each tacked on goals for the Tigers, who outshot the Sabers, 40-25.

Junior goaltender Jessica Erchul stopped 22 shots to pick up the win.

“Erchul played extremely well. We gift wrapped them over six break away point blank opportunities that she shut down,” Holmes said. “We could have been down 3-1 after one instead of up 3-1 if Erch had not been on her game.”

The Tigers competed again Tuesday at Rochester Mayo in their final tune-up before next week’s Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic at Schmitz-Maki Arena. The tournament field will include teams from Rosemount, Eastview, Lakeville North, Hastings, Apple Valley, Park of Cottage Grove and Sartell-Sauk Rapids. Four of the teams are ranked in the top 15 in Class 2A.

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