January 10
Girls Hockey – 5, Willmar – 0
For the third time in a week, I followed a two-hour class at Senior College by going immediately to back-to-back high school sporting events. I ain’t getting any younger. I don’t know how much longer I can continue this pace. What? Sid Hartman did this into his mid-90’s? Never mind . . .
[I was tardy arriving at the girls’ game, but I didn’t want to skip out of class early . . . ]
[As with the previous game, the first Cardinal to appear in the view finder was Mayson Toft (14) . . . ]
[And here she whaps a slap shot from the blue line with sophomore back line mate Ali Castle (22) in the foreground . . . ]
[These teams played earlier in the season at Willmar where our Cards (Willmar is also the Cardinals) put 68 shots-on-goal for a weirdly close 2 – 1 win . . . [
[Then our Cards opened the scoring with the first varsity goal by Micah Summer (8).]
[With goals come hugs . . . ]
[I’ve heard hugs are good . . . ]
[And here McKenna Ellingson (24) skates in on a breakaway . . . ]
[I suppose goalies look forward to this as a challenge, but I don’t think I’d care to have a hard rubber disc shot at me from point blank range . . . ]
[The shot . . . ]
[And she made the save. In the two games against Alex the Willmar goalie faced 112 shots-on-goal and only gave up 7 goals. Our Cards were more efficient in this game.]
[Kaci Trosvig (25) and Hanley Block (28), both freshmen, join the chase for the elusive puck . . . ]
[And here come our Cards with McKenna again . . . ]
[The goalie appears to have corralled the puck . . . ]
[But then Erin O’Kane (26) scored . . . ]
[More hugs . . . ]
[A dominating period but the Willmar goalie was keeping it close . . . ]
[Period 2, Hadlee Hansen (18) circles in the corner . . . ]
[Help arrives in the form of Erin, Makenna Aure (17) (another freshman), and Olivia Kopp (13) . . . ]
[Micah, Olivia, and Hadlee in our defensive zone . . . ]
[This looks like Micah from point blank range . . . ]
[And McKenna in again . . . ]
[But the puck escapes out the back door . . . ]
[Here’s Anna Doherty (7) with a backhander with fellow sophomore Marki Oberg (10) . . . ]
[With Alexis Heckert (20) also in the fray . . . ]
[And Anna scored!]
[Solid after 2 periods . . . ]
[And then in the final period, McKenna scored . . . ]
[And Hadlee scored to complete the scoring . . . ]
[Freshman Jordan O’Kane (1) started in goal and got her first career shutout.]
[Celebrate a convincing victory.]
Boys Hockey – 11, Willmar – 1
[Then the boys game . . . ]
[We had won earlier at Willmar 8 – 0, so this similarly did not appear to be a competitive game . . . ]
[After the opening face-off, Zack Wosepka (20) sprints into the offensive zone . . . ]
[Seniors Jack Westlund (10) and Ben Doherty (7) have been playing on the same line since they were freshmen . . . ]
[Ben excels in the face-off circle . . . ]
[Matthew Carlsen (26) on the point with Caleb Strong (3) in the Willmar zone . . . ]
[Matthew on a defenseman’s rush . . . ]
[With Caleb and Ben . . . ]
[Looks like the puck is in the air trending toward Willmar’s No. 24 . . . ]
[Jack circling back out . . . ]
[Ben . . . ]
[And Jack forechecking . . . ]
[And have recovered the puck . . . ]
[With that line in on goal . . . ]
[Aided by another Carlsen defenseman’s rush . . . ]
[A high shot . . . ]
[Then Caleb scored . . . ]
[And Alex Jost (29) scored to end the first period. It had been a long day, so I departed here knowing the game was safely in hand. The final score was 11 – 1, and our Cards had 63 shots on goal. Some of the scoring highlights were a hat trick by Caleb and 6 points from Ben. The team is now 11 – 4 overall and 7 – 1 in conference.]
When you win, nothing hurts. ~ Joe Namath
Up Next: Spain, again, is due . . .
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