Boys hockey: Farmington's late lead disappears against Northfield

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Farmington held leads of 2-0 and 4-3, but couldn’t hang on in a 5-4 overtime loss Thursday night at Northfield.

Northfield’s Andrew Scofield tied the game with a goal in the final minute of regulation, then gave the Raiders the win with another score three minutes into overtime.

The Tigers (9-12) took an early 2-0 lead on goals from Jake Sorensen and Quinn Malcolm, then fell behind 3-2 before Tyler Grubb and Andrew Peterson scored to make it 4-3 with under five minutes remaining. The Raiders pulled their goalie in the final minute and scored with 36 seconds left when Scofield got the puck from Michael Vogel and put it past goaltender Victor Simones with 36 seconds left.

“It was a mad scramble in front with bodies everywhere and somehow (they) find the net. Their third goal was the same thing,” Farmington coach Keith Revels said. “Northfield made a nice play at the blue line and gained an open break for the game-ender.”

Northfield held a 40-33 advantage in shots on goal, but Revels said his team had its share of chances.

“We played well enough to win, we just were not able to get the bounce or connect on the passes we needed to. We had a lot of near misses.”

Dan Handberg and Zak Payne each had two assists for the Tigers. Sorensen, Grant Hauswirth, Peterson and Grubb each added one assist.

Simones finished with 35 saves as his record fell to 7-7.

Simones stopped 41 shots and the Tigers played their closest game against Holy Angels in at least six years, falling 5-2 last Tuesday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The Stars won the previous matchup between the two teams 8-2 earlier this season, and had claimed the last 10 meetings by a combined score of 88-5.

A quick start helped the Tigers keep the latest contest much closer. Grubb scored on a pass from Handberg nine seconds into the first period. The first period ended with the score tied at 1-1 as Simones stopped 22 of 23 shots.

Holy Angels’ Connor Hurley scored the first of two power play goals 7:41 into the second, but Andrew Peterson responded with a goal 22 seconds later (assists to Hauswirth and Justin Rees) to tie the score back up at 2-2.

Holy Angels led 3-2 by the start of the third and added goals at 7:26 and 9:38 of the third to close out the win.

“Going into the third down one is uncharted waters for us against Holy Angels,” Revels said. “The biggest thing is we kept fighting to the end. Even down three late, we were putting some heavy pressure on and getting the pucks on their net. Not a win, but it was the kind of effort that we are looking for in the final weeks of the season.”

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