Boys hockey: Another big third sinks Northfield

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It didn’t take long for the Farmington boys hockey team to match last year’s win total in the Missota Conference.

Just 2-12 in the league last season, the Tigers ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 2-2 in the league with a 6-1 win over rival Northfield Friday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The score was 1-0 early in the third period before the Tigers came up with the latest in a string of strong finishes, scoring five goals in a nine-minute span to take control of the contest.The team has a 26-9 edge in third-period scoring in 13 games this season.

“We have to play well defensively and wear teams down and good things tend to happen to us,” Farmington coach Keith Revels said.

After a scoreless first period, Zak Payne got the home team on the board on a pass from Jake Sorenson during a 4-on-4 at the 14:37 mark of the second. Payne scored again during the third-period barrage on a pass from Grant Hauswirth.

“Zach Payne was the player of the game,” Revels said. “He kept his cool and played as hard as we have ever seen him. His two goals were big, but his defensive play and offensive pressure was just as key for us.”

Payne’s second-period score remained the only tally of the game until Andrew Peterson found the back of the net on a pass from Tyler Grubb 2:49 into the third. Grubb quickly followed with two goals of his own and Hauswirth capped off the run with a goal (assist from Kevin Olund) at the 11:13 mark.

That was plenty of support for goalkeeper Victor Simones, who stopped 26 of 27 Northfield shots. He lost a shutout bid when the Raiders got in the scoring column in the final 70 seconds.

Simones had his hands full in last Jan. 4 showdown with perennial conference champion Holy Angels.

The junior faced 59 Holy Angels shots, and stopped all 18 that came his way during the first period, before the Stars pulled away for an 8-2 victory at Richfield Ice Arena.

“We gave them a run for a bit,” Revels said. “The first period they out-shot us, but we did a nice job of keeping them on the perimeter and we had some nice looks of our own that we could not bury. The 0-0 first period is a first since I’ve been around.”

The Stars pulled ahead with five goals in the second period, then added two power play scores among their three third-period goals.

Grubb got the Tigers on the board (assists to Dan Handberg and Andrew Peterson) late in the second period. Handberg added a score of his own 11:34 into the third (assists to Justin Rees and Peterson).

The Tigers (7-6, 2-2) resume their conference slate this week with a Tuesday road game at Chaska and a Friday home date against New Prague at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

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