Boys hockey: Tigers tie at Northfield

• Photo: Boys hockey

Farmington senior defenseman Jack Buss tries to keep the puck away from a Holy Angels player during lsat week’s 11-2 home loss to the Stars at Schmitz-Maki Arena. The Tigers bounced back with a 2-2 tie Thursday at Northfield

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Just three games into its Missota Conference schedule, the Farmington boys hockey team has already experienced three extremely different results.

After skating to a fairly comfortable 5-1 win over Shakopee in their league opener, the Tigers were blown out 11-2 by Holy Angels last Tuesday at Schmitz-Maki Arena. The team bounced back by playing rival Northfield to a 2-2 tie last Thursday at Northfield Ice Arena.

“We bounced back well and played a very solid game,” Farmington coach Keith Revels said. “We competed and worked hard, which is what we are asking them to do. A tie on the road is something we can build on for next week.”

The Tigers took the lead early against Northfield when Jake Eldred intercepted a pass and knocked in an unassisted, short-handed goal at the 3:20 mark of the first period. It took the Raiders just 32 seconds to come up with the equalizer and the score stayed tied through the end of the first.

The visitors moved ahead again 4:48 into the second when Grant Hauswirth flipped in a wrap-around for his second goal of the year (assists to Jason Thomas and Kevin Olund).

The score stayed 2-1 until 9:13 of the third when the Raiders converted on the power play to tie the game.

Farmington had a 35-22 advantage in shots on goal, including 7-1 in overtime, but couldn’t come up with the game-winner.

Victor Simones played all 59 minutes between the pipes and stopped 20 shots.

Simones faced a barrage of early shots earlier in the week against Holy Angels. The Stars connected on four goals out of 23 first-period shots, then scored three more times on 20 shots in the second to take a 7-2 lead heading into the third.

The Stars scored their first two goals on the power play and finished 6 of 7 on power plays in the game. Farmington had allowed just four power-play goals in its previous nine games.

“They are not the Holy Angels of old. They don’t have the depth that they have had in the past, but they still have a handful of very high-end players,” Revels said. “We did not perform well in our own end and they took advantage of it.… Thankfully it only counts as one in the lost column.”

The Tigers finally got on the board with a power-play goal of their own by Eldred 13:36 into the second period (assists to Jack Buss and Andrew Peterson). Less than a minute later, Thomas added a goal of his own (assists to Hauswirth and Olund) to draw the home team back within five.

Simones finished with 46 saves. Austin Kruise played the final nine minutes in goal and stopped five of seven shots.

The Tigers are back in action this week with Missota Conference games against Chaska (Tuesday) and New Prague (tonight at New Prague Community Center).

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