Girls hockey: Tigers come up empty at Louis Schmitz Classic

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Last week’s Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic provided a stark contrast between the Farmington girls hockey teams of 2010-11 and 2011-12.

A season ago, the Tigers scored 13 goals in three games and rolled past Apple Valley, Park of Cottage Grove and Hastings to the tournament title. This year’s team — without graduated seniors Krystal Baumann and Hannah Alexander, two of the top scorers in program history — managed just four goals on 82 shots while falling to Eastview, Park and Hastings.

Meanwhile, Lakeville North beat Rosemount Thursday to win the seventh-annual tournament the day before its namesake, Farmington hockey icon Louis Schmitz, died at the age of 85.

“It was a tough week. We played well in the first two contests. I thought that the girls worked hard and executed our game plan for the most part. We just need to fill that one very important piece to the puzzle in regards to finding the twine,” Farmington head coach Jon Holmes said. “We had more shots on net than average for both games, but to no avail. We need to keep working in practice to find the solution because the time does go faster than one ever anticipates. We only have 11 regular season games left.”

The Tigers (4-10) came up empty on all 32 of their shots as they were shut out for the third time this season, 3-0, in last Tuesday’s tournament opener against Eastview.

Senior goaltender Jessica Erchul stopped 37 Lightning shots to keep the game close.

The tournament hosts saw a 2-1 lead disappear late in their second-round game as Park of Cottage Grove scored two third-period goals to grab a 3-2 win.

Grace Gavin opened the scoring for the Tigers with a power-play goal (assist to Haleigh Zwart) in the first period. Zwart scored a goal of her own on an assist from Haley Doll to make it 2-1 early in the third.

Erchul finished with 40 saves in the loss. She added a tournament-high 43 saves in the seventh-place game against Hastings Thursday, giving her 120 for the tournament. The Raiders scored two late goals to break a 2-2 tie and earn a 4-2 victory.

Doll and Chloe Batta each scored goals for the Tigers. Betsy Anderson provided an assist.

The Tigers traveled to Holy Angels Tuesday and are back in action tonight when they host Hopkins for a non-conference game at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

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