Girls hockey: Offense steps up in 5-2 win over Northfield

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Farmington broke out of its season-long scoring funk for at least one night, dropping five goals on Northfield in a 5-2 Missota Conference victory Friday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The Tigers scored more than three goals in a game for the first time this season as they won their third in a row since being swept at the Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic two weeks ago. It took back-to-back shutouts by senior goaltending standout Jessica Erchul to preserve 1-0 wins over Holy Angels and 14th-ranked (Class 2A) Hopkins last week before the offense got into gear against the rival Raiders.

Farmington trailed early on before Chloe Batta tied the score (assists to Betsy Anderson and Michaela Tonsager) with her fifth goal of the season. Haley Doll put the Tigers ahead for good with her sixth goal of the season (assists to Alexis Smrekar and Molly Friedlund) at the 10:27 mark.

Haleigh Zwart added to the home team’s lead with a pair of goals in the second period and Tonsager netted a power-play goal in the third to cap the scoring.

Erchul stopped 26 shots as the Tigers improved to 7-10 overall and 3-3 in the Missota Conference.

Erchul turned back all 36 Hopkins shots in a 1-0 shutout a night earlier at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

“Erchul is the real deal and I hope some colleges will take a genuine look and interest in her,” Farmington coach Jon Holmes said. “Her numbers in high school hockey are among the best in the state and they certainly do not come against an easy schedule.”

After a scoreless first period, Tonsager scored the game’s lone goal on the power play on a pass from Rachael Welzin.

“We played excellent from start to finish and as an entire team last night,” Holmes said. “For the remainder of the season we will have to play to our strengths while working on finding the twine between games during practice. If we can add the scoring factor in to any given game we could definitely make a fun and exciting run.”

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